The Strawhat Marine
by PxFive
Summary: Garp decides to train Luffy himself rather than give him to Dadan. Strong!Marine!Luffy with a different devil fruit. Rated T to be safe. My first fanfiction.
1. Prologue

**An: This is a marine!Luffy story. I hope you like it.**

 **Update 28** **th** **June '17: I haven't really changed this chapter, but it is horribly formatted and the only one in the story that is horribly formatted and may thus be unappealing as a start to a story, so I'm updating it.**

 ***** Sengoku's Office**

Monkey D. Garp looked down at the small bundle that his son had left him not an hour ago.

"You'll be the best Marine there is." he whispered to the sleeping baby that was Monkey D. Luffy.

The Fleet Admiral of the Marines, Sengoku sat opposite his old friend Garp and observed the baby that lay on his table.

"So that's your grandson, Garp?"

The old Marine Hero smiled proudly in response.

" What do you plan to do with him?" the Fleet Admiral asked curiously.

"I'm going to send him back to Foosha village to live with the mountain bandits, they'll toughen him up and make him Admiral material!"

" Mountain bandits, do you really think that mountain bandits could raise a marine?" questioned Sengoku.

"No"

Garp paused to dig his nose and said, "Your point being...?"

Sengoku felt like face-palming at the logic of his old friend but continued, " So how will you make Luffy a Marine if you have him raised by mountain bandits!"

"Aah, I see what you mean... then I will raise him personally, he has to be a marine!"

Sengoku frowned, "Garp, how can you be a full-time parent when you have your Marine duties?"

"I'll take a 25-year leave, then." Garp replied, so determined on his grand-son that he would essentially quit his job for 25 years.  
"How about you work part-time for us instead, that way you'll still be earning money and be able to return full-time after you are done training your grand-child."

"Sure!"

 ***** 12 years later**

"232,233,234,235,236,237,238" Garp counted out as he sat on his Luffy's back while he did pushups.

Luffy was muscular for his 12 years of age and had unruly black hair. He wore a red vest and denim shorts.

Sweat rolled down his forehead as he slowly pushed himself up for his 239th pushup. On Luffy's 256th pushup, Garp's marine transponder snail rang.

"You're in luck, Luffy, you get a break while I'm talking," said Garp, picking up the reciever on the snail.

Sengoku's voice was concerned as he said, "Garp, we need you at HQ, there's been a breakout from Impel Down and-", he was interupted by Luffy who yelled in to the snail's reciever, " Thank you for giving me a break, Ossan!" while grinning his shit-eating grin.

That was until Garp's fist of love came down on his head and gave him a comically large bruise on his head.

*** **3 days of sailing later Dawn Island**

"Dadan, I need you to keep Luffy for me, while I go and help at Marine HQ."

"Okay, I'll keep the brat, but no longer than a year, Garp, you hear me!" replied Dadan the bandit reluctantly.

*** **12 months later**

Luffy and his new friends, Portgas D. Ace and Outlook Sabo were hunting tigers in the 3 of the young boys were monstrously strong but Luffy in particular with his Haki was even stronger than the other boys who were 3 years older.

After catching and eating a tiger each, the 3 of them were sitting and relaxing. 

"I'm going to get some fruit for my desert, wanna come?"

"Oi, Luffy, get me some as well, I'm too full to move", said Ace.

"Get your own fruit, I'm only looking for my own desert!", said Luffy.

The young boy had wandered around looking for fruit to eat for a while before he came across a fruit he had never seen before that looked kind of like a huge cocoa bean.

It was very high up on a tree. Luffy used a combination of the Geppo that he was learning and grabbing onto branches to get himself to the top of the extraordinarily tall tree and eat the fruit.

As he devoured the entire fruit in a single bite, he tasted the horrible bitterness of a devil fruit and knew exactly what it was. Before he could wonder exactly which devil fruit he had eaten or what the ramifications would be, his hand that was holding onto a branch to keep him standing straight turned brown and liquidy and let go of the branch.

Luffy fell to the ground but strangely it didn't hurt all that much. Luffy stumbled/slithered back to where he knew his friends were. Upon seeing Luffy Ace's eyes widened, "Luffy!, is that you?" Luffy nodded. "What happened to you! you're all mucky looking... actually, that looks more like chocolate..."' At this Ace stuck a finger in the humanoid brown blob that was Luffy and licked the substance of off his finger.

"Mmm, yup, that is definately chocolate, how did you get yourself covered in chocolate?"

Luffy tried to say, "I ate a devil fruit", key word, tried.

His jaw melted into chocolate and didn't let him speak properly so what came out sounded more like, "I a a deii foo"

After concentrating for at least 20 minutes, Luffy managed to say, "I ate a devil fruit, from what I can tell probably some kind of chocolate devil fruit."

Ace burst out laughing, " You have the lamest power ever!" he said between gasps.

Sabo frowned and said, " We should probably take you back to Dadan."

The 3 of them head back to Dadan's base only to find that she was not there.

"Okay, let's take Luffy to Shanks then, he'll know what to do!"

Red-Haired Shanks was a pirate captain. At first Luffy has stayed away because his grandfather had told him that most pirates well the spawn of satan but eventually became friends with the pirate captain, though Shanks often teased him about what Luffy would do when he became a marine and had to catch pirates like Shanks because Luffy's dream was to become a Fleet Admiral of the Marines.

At this particular moment in time, Shanks was at Makino's bar, where he spent a lot of time.

Ace and Sabo rushed in with Luffy in all of his chocolately glory.

Shanks raised an eyebrow, "What the hell happened to Luffy?"

"Luffy ate a devils fruit!" replied Sabo, out of breath.

Whatever the 2 were expecting the red haired captain to do, they were not expecting him to start laughing, which he, of course, did. "By the looks of it you've eaten either the Numa Numa no mi or the Choco Choco no mi."

He stuck a finger in Luffy just like Ace had done earlier and licked it, "Yup, definately the Choco Choco no mi, that's a Logia class fruit, the strongest kind. By that time, Luffy had returned to look at least somewhat normal, if a little melty.

Garp chose this time to wall through the wall of Makino's bar. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw one of the Yonko, Red Hair Shanks talking to Luffy.

He saw red, after all of his hard work, Luffy was being corrupted by a pirate. Garp pulled a cannon-ball out of nowhere and flung it at Shanks who noticed it at the last second with his observation haki and sliced it in half.

"Jii-chan!" screamed Luffy.

"DON"T YOU DARE CORRUPT MY GRANDSON, YOU RED-HAIRED BASTARD!" roared Garp looking extremely intimidating.

Luffy suddenly understanding why Garp was so mad said, "Chill Jee-Chan, I'm still going to be Fleet Admiral of the Marines!"

"YOU DAMN AKAGAMI, I'LL KILL YOU- wait what?"

"I'm not going to become a pirate" restated Luffy.

"Oh thank god!" sighed Garp.

"Vice-Admiral Garp, we need to leave soon!" said one of the Marine Soldiers who was flanking Garp.

"Okay" Garp replied before attempting to grab Luffy's hand, however when he did, Luffy's hand turned to liquid chocolate and dripped out of Garp's hand.

Luffy looked at Garp guiltily, "I ate a devil fruit." he said for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"Logia, the Choco Choco no mi", Shanks added helpfully then his face turned serious, "Luffy, do you still wanna be the Fleet Admiral of the Marines?"

"Of course" came the prompt reply.

Shanks took off his iconic straw-hait and handed it to Luffy, "This hat is very important to me, Luffy, when you become the Fleet Admiral, then return my hat to me, okay?"

Luffy put the hat on his head and was about to reply when Garp, using armament haki this time, grabbed Luffy by the shoulder strode out of the bar.

"I promise!", Luffy yelled as he was dragged out by his hat.

 **AN: I hope you enjoyed. This is my first fanfiction. I came up with the choco choco no mi on my own, it's a logia fruit for chocolate. Please review and all of that jazz.**


	2. Becoming a Marine

**AN: Thanks Lostdog, DemonicIce, Silena, Aidensidhe and 'Guest' (whoever you may be) for reviewing!**

 **I haven't heard of code name kids next door before but I watched s04e07, thanks for the recommendation. My formatting for the first chapter got messed up because I uploaded it as a .txt and says and I quote, "Basic support. Not recommended. Use as last resort." I will be uploading this as a .docx and I hope that my formatting stays this time.**

 **Yes, I have seen movie 3 but the choco choco no mi is different from the candy fruit, there are other similar logia fruits as well (Monet's snow fruit and Aokiji's ice fruit are good examples).**

 ***** Time-skip to when Luffy is 18 years old**

Monkey D Garp and his Grandson Luffy had been waiting at the pier for almost 2 hours. Both men were digging their noses while staring out at the sea.

"Jii-channn, when will he arrive?" moaned Luffy.

"He is a busy man, Luffy." came the annoyingly vague reply. Garp had been extremely tight-lipped about who was going to take over Luffy's sword training. Garp had trained Luffy is the basics of the sword but Luffy had quickly become better than Garp himself at swordsmanship.

Just then a small ship became visible in the distance and got closer steadily until Luffy could make out a tall lean man with black hair, a short beard, moustache and sideburns that point upwards. As the ship closed in, the man leaped off of the small boat and landed gracefully on the pier.

"So you're the boy that red-hair keeps talking about…" he muttered more to himself than to Luffy.

"Ohh, you know Shanks!" said Luffy excitedly.

"I wouldn't have agreed to help you out a bit, if I didn't." replied the man.

"Hi Im Luffy!"

"Dracule Mihawk."

*** **Time skip to when Luffy is 20 years old**

Aokiji looked at the boy who Garp had left with him, "So you're the guy with the choco choco no mi, huh"

"Yes" grinned back Luffy turning his hand brown and melty.

"I'm going to train you to use your Logia to its best potential."

"Okay"

*** **Time skip to when Luffy is 25 years old, Marineford recruitment office**

Rear Admiral 'Stoic-Salamander' Sanshoo was the officer assigned to conduct the interviews for prospective marines. He was the eater of the sala sala no mi (salamander zoan), and considered himself to be relatively strong, though he was one of the weaker rear admirals.

He had been promoted recently and had to work the recruitment shift for 6 months before he was reassigned. It was on his last day in recruitment, that one Monkey D Luffy was scheduled to be interviewed.

It was a dog-eared sheaf of papers that was crumpled and aged, in-fact the submission date was 25 years old! What surprised him further s the age of the candidate was 25 as well. Sanshoo was curious as to who this may be. His wildest guesses didn't even come close.

Monkey D Luffy arrived with none other than Garp the Hero, the legendary marine!

*** **30 minutes later**

After the obligatory interview came the duel to assess the candidate's skill. Usually, candidates would not even be close to as strong as a rear admiral, even a weak one but this was not the case with one Monkey D Luffy.

The first punch was thrown by Sanshoo. He had two swords on his hip but after the less than stellar interview **(Luffy's IQ is the same as canon)** , he had come to underestimate Luffy. It was a strong punch that was reinforced with a little Haki (but not a lot). It sent Luffy flying into the wall, in the process breaking it and creating a huge cloud of plaster dust.

Sanshoo was smirking at how weak this new candidate had been and didn't notice the puddle of melted chocolate that was slithering across the floor until it was climbing up his leg, coating him in chocolate that was quickly hardening.

It was at his waist-level before he acted, sending a haki-coated fist at the chocolate. He gasped in surprise when the punch did nothing.

'Shit, I'm getting my ass handed to me by a complete newbie!' thought Sanshoo as the chocolate continued wrapping around his body.

'My fist was coated in armament Haki and it didn't nullify his devil fruit, which means… he has Haki that is stronger than mine', he thought just before he was completely coated and became basically a chocolate coated statue.

Luffy landed next to his statue and waited nearly a minute, grinning all the while, before melting the chocolate with a flick of his hand, sending Sanshoo to his knees gasping for the breath that he had been deprived while a statue. Sanshoo didn't see the sword but instead felt the cold metal against his neck before hearing Luffy say, "I win"

*** **30 minutes later**

"I'm sorry but the highest rank I can award you is 'captain'." Squeaked the frightened Rear Admiral who was ironically known for his stoic and un-fazable personality.

"I request an assignment to East Blue" said Luffy completely ignoring the fear that laced the Rear Admiral's tone.

"East Blue?" stuttered out the Rear Admiral, wondering why such a strong person would request assignment to the weakest sea.

"Yes, East Blue", repeated Luffy impatiently.

Sanshoo called the East Blue office and requested to speak to the commanding officer in East Blue which turned out to be Commodore Smoker ( **in canon Luffy was 17, Luffy is 25 now, I'm making it so that Smoker was promoted in the 7 years between).**

Sanshoo composed himself again before speaking down the transponder snail, "Am I speaking to Commodore Smoker?" he said.

"Yes"

"Captain Monkey D Luffy has requested a transfer to East Blue, are there any positions open?" asked Sanshoo.

"So Straw-hat is finally a Marine, eh"

"You know him?"

"SMOKEY!" interrupted Luffy.

"We've met"

"I can see that." Said Sanshoo before sweat-dropping.

"We need another patrol ship, I've kept the position open for Luffy." Said Smoker.

*** **2 days later**

"This is the crew that has been assigned to you." said Garp gesturing to the 6 people standing in front of him.

"Introduce yourself!" commanded Luffy in his most authoritative voice before bursting into giggles. Everyone sweat-dropped.

"Commander Tanaka, sir!" said a burly Marine with bushy black hair and a moustache.

"Lieutenant John, sir!" said a tall man with a pale complexion and two swords.

"Lieutenant Kira, sir!" said a neatly dressed man with brown straight hair and brown eyes.

"Ensign Ansel, sir!" said a short man with a squeaky voice.

"Ensign Jacob, sir!" said a blonde man with a wide chin.

"Recruit Anjali, sir!" said the only girl on the crew, short and bespectacled with red hair and a sword.

"Awesome, nice to meet you, who's the cook!"

Jacob raised his hand.

"Great! I like you already Jacob, who's the musician!" said Luffy. All 6 of his crew were already regretting joining the marines.

"We don't have one, sir." Said Tanaka. Luffy pouted while everyone else sweat-dropped.

"Anything else, Jii-chan?"

"There were some extremely important detailed instructions on your course and your inspection rounds but I didn't listen to those so nothing else of importance." Said Garp digging his nose again. ( **His nose must be completely clean by now)**

 **Thank you for reading chapter 2!**


	3. Meeting Coby

*** **1 month later, Logue town**

Marine Captain Monkey D Luffy arrived at Logue-town at 5:46 with his crew of 6 people. 5 of them seemed relatively cheerful and in good spirits but the sixth man, Jacob was being supported by two of his crew-mates and was half-walking and half being dragged along.

Jacob's blonde hair was frizzy and sticking up in odd angles. His eyes were bloodshot and half-closed. His Marine Jacket (that reached his waist, not his ankles unlike most Marines) was in tatters and the suit he wore under it was far messier than it had been at the start of their voyage.

He had the unfortunate job of being the only cook on a ship with one Monkey D Luffy on it.

*** **Later, Commodore Smoker's office**

"So, they finally promoted you, Smoker?"

"Yup, I'm a Commodore now and I'm heading the entire East Blue division of the Marines. Rear Admiral Asami has been transferred to North Blue." Despite his stoic personality, Smoker had a soft spot for Luffy.

"I still can't believe that they left the entire East Blue to a Commodore"

"Hey!" said Smoker indignantly.

"West Blue and South Blue are run by Rear Admirals and North Blue has Vice Admiral Hanji, and you're not even a Rear-Admiral yet."

"Well, the average East Blue bounty just went down to 3 million and the number of pirate and bandit raids in East Blue is at an all-time low." Explained Smoker.

"Anyway Jii-chan mentioned some extremely important and detailed instructions about our course and inspection rounds but didn't actually give them to us, I was wondering if you had a copy."

"Of-course I do, nobody would ever trust Garp to pass on any information to anybody no matter how strong he may be. HQ sent me a copy." Smoker fumbled behind his desk for a few moments before pulling out a huge sheaf of papers, maybe 100-150 a4 sheets in total. Luffy stared at the pile of spiral-bound pages with dreading wide-eyes that seemed to say, 'please kill me now'.

"I have to read all of that!" gasped Luffy.

"Yes"

"All of it?"

"Oui"

"Every single page"

"Hai"

"All of those words"

"Si"

"I have to spend all of that time I could be eating, reading!"

"I've run out of languages I know how to say 'yes' in" commented Smoker dryly. Luffy promptly burst into tears.

"There there" Smoker said awkwardly while standing there stiffly, not knowing what to do.

*** **Couple of days later**

The small caravel that Luffy and his crew were sailing in was caught in the middle of a huge storm (gigantic by East Blue standards). Only Luffy and Anjali were on deck. Luffy's crew did not have a good navigator but Anjali was standing in for the position temporarily and though she lacked experience and expertise, she was doing fairly well at navigation.

A huge wave hit the ship rocking it, making the boards of the small caravel creak and sending things flying…Luffy included. The Marine Captain went flying off the ship along with a couple of empty barrels. As he approached the sea, he had to think quickly. He sealed himself inside one of the barrels and hoped that it would withstand the water-pressure and that it would wash up somewhere. Luffy prepared for a long nap.

*** **A few hours later, Fancy Passenger Ship**

The crew of the random passenger ship pulled aboard a barrel that had been floating in the sea. Just as they were about to open it, the look-out in the crow's nest yelled out, "Pirates!"

Everybody on the ship started panicking. There were no soldiers aboard so they were sitting ducks for the pirates to pick on.

The ship was quickly boarded by the Alvida pirates and their captain 5 million beri pirate, Iron Mace Alvida. Along with the conventional pirates, who wielded swords and wore bandanas, came a short chubby boy with strikingly feminine pink hair.

Suddenly stopping, Alvida asked rather loudly, "Coby, who is the prettiest woman on all 4 blues!"

"O-obviously you, A-Alvida-sama." Stammered the pink-haired boy now identified as Coby.

The pirates dispersed to loot the ship and collect all the valuables. By chance Coby came across the barrel that had been pulled up to deck earlier. Some of the other pirates came across Coby as he lugged the barrel back to Alvida.

The first pirate leered down at the weak kid, "You're not hiding again are you, Coby?"

"N-No, Sir, I was just taking this barrel of wine back to Alvida-sama."

"Well, we'll take the weight off of your hands" said the second random Alvida Pirate.

"B-But what about taking everything to Alvida-sama?" said Coby.

"What she doesn't know can't hurt her, and we won't tell, right Coby?" said the third random Alvida Pirate, putting his hand on the hilt of his sword menacingly to intimidate Coby into silence.

Just then the barrel burst into pieces as Captain Monkey D Luffy sprung out of the wreckage of the barrel as he stretched, "That was a nice nap!" he yawned.

The 3 random Alvida pirates attacked him like they would any person who sprung out of a barrel on a ship they were hijacking. Luffy saw all 3 strikes coming with his Observation Haki and dodged all three, drawing his own sword and slices through the chests of all 3 in a single instant, displaying his graceful swordsmanship. A split second later the 3 henchmen fell to the ground, blood spurting out of the deep gashes on their chests.

Luffy turned to Coby, his sword raised, "Are you a pirate as well?"

"N-No"

"Then why are you with them."

"See, one day I was out fishing and I mistook the Pirate ship for a lighthouse and approached it. The ship was the ship of Iron-Mace Alvida, and she enslaved be as her chore-boy with the promise of death if I ever tried to escape", explained Coby.

"So you are a pirate?"

"No! Well technically I am but against my will."

"I see, so you're a pirate but you don't want to be."

"Yes, are you a marine then?"

"Yes, I'm the man who's going to be the next Fleet Admiral of the Marines!"

"F-Fleet Admiral! But you'll have to go to the Grand Line to do that! The Grand Line is the Pirate's Graveyard!"

"I've been to paradise tons of times, it's no biggie."

"P-Paradise?" 

"It's what they call the first half of the Grand Line."

"Really"

"Yup"

"You're so awesome, I wanna be a Marine too, and catch all the bad guys like Alvida" 

"Catch who, Coby?" said a voice from behind Luffy. Luffy turned around and said, "Oi, Coby, who's the whale?"

The people on Alvida's crew ran for it, not wanting to get injured by their captain's Iron Mace while she swung at Luffy.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?" roared Alvida.

"A whale"

"Oi, Coby, Who's the prettiest in all 4 blues?"

"Boa Hancock, the mermaid princess, 'Devil-Child' Nico Robin, not you definitely." Cut in Luffy, answering the question that had been directed at Coby.

'Hmm Coby?" said Alvida ignoring Luffy for the moment.

Coby took a deep breath before yelling, "Not you, you fat hag!" before cowering in fear and scuttling away.

Alvida roared and swung her mace. Luffy held out one Armament Haki blackened arm. The Iron Mace hit Luffy's hardened arm and shattered, falling to the ground in several pieces. Alvida took a step back, finally realising that she was outclassed by the man in front of her. Coby stood behind Luffy, awestruck by Luffy's amazing show of power. Luffy pulled back his fist and punched Alvida as hard as he could. He turned his arm to liquid chocolate so that it could lengthen a bit as his arm de-compressed letting his arm pack a little more punch. Alvida went flying into the distance.

"SO Coby, you wanna be a marine, right?" said Luffy.

"Y-Yes" replied a still awestruck Coby.

"If you can take me to the nearest marine base, I'll see what I can do to get you recruited."

"Would you really!" said Coby with stars in his eyes.

"Sure"

 **An: Thanks for reading, please review.**


	4. Axe-Hand Morgan

**AN: Thanks for all the favs and follows. Please Review. Also I don't own anything (except the OCs), this is Fanfiction that should be obvious.**

*** **Some time later at Shell Town**

Marine Captain Luffy arrived at Shell Town in a small dinghy which they had 'liberated' from the ship of Iron Mace Alvida. Luffy was still in high spirits from his first official fight as a Marine. He was proud even if it was only a small time 5 million beri pirate who was way before Luffy's level.

Luffy had let his Marine coat go when he fell off of his ship in favour of holding onto his distinctive straw-hat so he was wearing his open red vest that displayed his toned chest and many scars that he had acquired in training with Garp, Mihawk, Aokiji and the kind. He also wore the same blue shorts that he does in canon. (He looked more like post-time skip Luffy)

All in all, Luffy didn't look like the high ranking Marine that he was. He and Coby walked through the streets. Coby was rambling on about how awesome and cool the Marines were and he was getting a lot of frightened and wary looks that he didn't seem to notice but Luffy did.

'Maybe the Marines here are corrupt' thought Luffy.

"I heard that the branch here is headed by the great Captain Morgan, the man who took down Kuro-of-a-hyphened-epithet!" ( **AN: Originally Kuro of a thousand plans)**

All of the villagers of Shell Town scrambled away from Coby and Luffy, some yelling, others just very white. At this point Luffy was almost certain that Morgan was corrupt.

"And it's also the base at which they're holding the infamous evil Pirate Hunter Zoro!" The people who remained around Luffy and Coby scrambled away.

Coby finally noticed the people's weird reactions and said, "I can understand them being afraid of the Evil Pirate Hunter but how can any innocent be afraid of a righteous Marine Captain!"

"Just like there are bad pirates, there are also bad marines and on the other side of the spectrum there are also good pirates."

"Marines are the awesomest and coolest people on earth!"

"To me it seems that this Morgan is the worst kind of Marine, a corrupt one."

"Corruption in the marines? Never!"

Luffy sighed giving Coby up as a lost cause. They walked on in relative silence while Coby considered the possibility of corrupt marines. They finally reached the Marine Base which looked incredible ugly and foreboding.

Luffy knocked on the huge gates but did not get an answer, so he kicked the gate off its hinges (Coby squeaked in fear) and walked into the base. He noticed an open door that led outside, where there seemed to be a huge crowd of Marines with guns that were pointed at none other than the Infamous Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro.

Luffy narrowed his eyes, he had heard from a small girl names Rika that the Marines had promised to let Zoro go after a month which would be completed in a week, which meant the marines were breaking their promise. This more than anything else enraged the Marine Captain.

Luffy ran as fast as he could into the field and stepped in front of Zoro. The Marines who had been about to shoot Zoro stopped when they saw the unknown raven-haired man stand in front of Zoro shielding the Pirate Hunter with his own body.

"In the name of Justice, I, Marine Captain Monkey D Luffy order you to stop this execution!" said Luffy pulling out a Marine badge out of his pants and holding it up. All of the marines hesitated and Coby yelped from his corner upon realising that his new friend was a Marine Captain.

Morgan seemed to be unsure of what to do but finally decided, "Kill the marine and Roronoa, nobody defies me, not even a captain!"

The marines hesitated but one execution threat later, they all shot at Luffy and Zoro. Luffy stood in front of Zoro and turned his chest to chocolate. All of the bullets dug into the chocolate and slowed to a halt. Luffy grinned his signature grin and popped all of the bullets out of his chest, this time with a chocolate coating.

The marine soldiers all dropped their guns and crawled away, some of the weaker willed ones pissed themselves.

"Get up and fight or kill yourself!" roared Morgan.

The men reluctantly got up and pulled out their swords and ran at Luffy.

In a split second Luffy unsheathed his sword, cut through the swords of the first two marines, sheathed his sword and then proceeded to put one hand on each Marine. Chocolate burst out of his hand and covered the bodies of the two marines turning them into chocolate statues. Luffy purposely made the chocolate melty enough that is would thaw out in a few minutes and leave unconscious marines not dead ones. The marines behind the first two backed off a little.

"Hot Chocolate!" Luffy held his arm out in front of himself, pointing at Morgan's marines. His arm turned brown and started steaming from the temperature the chocolate was at. The chocolate had melted completely and was being held together by Luffy's will alone.

'Thanks for this trick, Akainu' thought Luffy.

"Jet Chocolate Eruption!" shouted out Luffy. The pressure that had built up in his 'hot chocolate arm' burst out. It was like a super-fast stream of scalding hot chocolate that hit Morgan's marines with force about the same as the punch of a small giant. The 6 marines hit by it, flew into the wall with 2nd degree burns on their faces and chests. The 3 remaining members of Morgan's rogue marines ran out of reach of Morgan's axe and cowered, begging for mercy from Luffy.

Morgan snarled, "Weaklings!" He raised his axe and went to chop of Luffy's head. Luffy let his head be chopped off, despite the fact that the axe was extremely slow.

Coby yelped out in fear and almost wet himself. He had been untying Zoro to make himself useful, furiously thinking about corruption in the ranks of the marines when Luffy's head had been cut off.

Instead of the gushing blood one would expect from a decapitated body, there was only chocolate where the head had been cut off. Luffy's head on the ground melted and slithered up to Morgan, coming up to his waist and freezing his legs together and to the ground immobilising him. A right hook just above his metal jaw knocked him out completely.

The marines who were left standing looked at each other for a long second before starting to cheer.

*** **Thanks for reading!**


	5. Update on changes from Canon

**AN: This is not a regular chapter but instead it is a list of changes other than the main ones to canon so far including my slightly altered Marine ranks.**

 ***** Marine Ranks**

I have increased the number of Marine ranks purely so that there are more promotions for Luffy to receive. The ranks lower than 'captain' will remain the same and can be found on the one piece wiki.

The ranks are from top to bottom, highest down to captain the lowest on my list.

Fleet Admiral - Sengoku

3 Admirals – eg Aokiji

Vice Admiral – eg Garp

Chief Admiral – new rank

Frontier Admiral – new rank

Rear Admiral – eg Sanshoo

Chief Commodore – new rank

Commodore – eg Smoker

Captain – eg Luffy

*** **Sabo**

Sabo's 'death' does not happen in this timeline. Sabo lives with Ace until he is 25 and then leaves to become a pirate.

*** **Leaving at 17/25**

In canon, Luffy and Ace both started their journeys at the age of 17. This was something that had been initiated by Ace who said that they should each depart at the age of 17. In this timeline, Garp has already told Luffy that he will train until he is 25 years of age so Ace and Sabo vow to leave at the same age, 25.

*** **7 years later**

In this timeline, I will let things happen as they did 7 years ago. Obviously Zoro would have been long dead if he had been executed when Luffy was 17, 7 years ago. Some people like Smoker have been promoted or given higher bounties over the 7 years but things will mostly be like they were 7 years ago.

*** **Thanks for reading. This wasn't a proper chapter but it was an important update nonetheless.**


	6. Top Hat Sabo and Fire Fist Ace

**An: This chapter will focus on Sabo and Ace, and what happens to him.**

*** **3 years ago, when Sabo is 25, Foosha Village**

Portgas D Ace was waving his hand wildly from the pier. Sabo had just set sail in his tiny boat and waved back cheerfully. Everybody from the town was there for the farewell of the first brother.

Even Luffy had persuaded Garp to let him come to Foosha (not telling him about Sabo being a pirate though) and was still smiling like a crazy person. The Sea King burst out of the water and Sabo jumped high and sliced a huge gash on the Sea King's neck sending it falling backwards.

Everyone in the village cheered.

*** **A year later**

The new super-rookie, 70 million beri bounty, Top-Hat Sabo and his crew were on a random island in the grand line. It was a rainforest island and the rain was pouring down in buckets when Sabo spotted a purple swirly fruit on a high branch on a weird tree.

'A devil fruit!' thought Sabo. He climbed the tree and picked the fruit before hesitating.

'Should I eat it or sell it?"

He ate it.

*** **2 years later (around the time Luffy becomes a Marine)**

The Top Hat Pirates were the strongest of the rookies, since the Spade Pirates merged with Whitebeard. Top Hat Sabo had the highest bounty of any rookie, 450,000,000 beri. He used a paramecia type devil fruit but never revealed it outright, although his fighting style gave many hints.

Bounty Hunter Alaric was one of the best. He took down the best. His latest victim had been a 200,000,000 beri pirate whom he took down with ease. He used the Cerb-Cerb no mi (the Cerberus fruit). It was mythical Zoan class that allowed him to turn into the guardian of hell, Cerberus.

His newest target was the big one, Top Hat Sabo.

He stalked Sabo for over an hour before he made his move. He jumped out of a high tree in the forest that Sabo was in. He did a roll in the air, while unsheathing his sword and swung at Sabo's neck from behind, a quick and clean strike is always best, especially when dealing with a strong pirate, with whom conflict can get messy.

*** **Sabo PoV**

He had been hunting in the forest on the island that they were on when his Observation Haki warned him of a strike to his back. He spun around, unsheathing his sword and meeting his masked opponent's sword with his own.

The force of the strike knocked the opponent back, giving Sabo a chance to observe his mask.

It was the infamous bounty hunter Alaric.

Shit.

*** **General PoV**

Sabo rolled backwards pulling his fist was and throwing it hard and fast. His arm extended as he punched letting the punch reach Alaric's jaw, cracking it.

Alaric engaged Sabo in a sword-fight but all could see that Alaric was barely holding Sabo off, while Sabo was calm and collected, stalling Alaric while he thought of a plan.

"Enough!" yelled Alaric. With one last strike, he jumped back and began to transform. Soon, a humongous 3-headed dog stood in his place. It was at-least 20 feet tall (6 metres approx.).

The first head leapt out and tried to bite Sabo, who punched the dog in the mouth, knocking down one of its large teeth that was as big as Sabo's hat. Sabo moved back, thinking quickly as the Cerberus approached again.

*** **Sabo PoV**

He had been left no other choice. He had to use it, the big one.

"Gear 3rd!" At this Sabo bit into his thumb and blew. His arm grew to the size of a giants. He then coated it with armament.

"Gigant Pistol!" He pulled the giant black arm back and punched the Cerberus with all of his strength.

The huge dog was sent flying by the immense force behind the attack.

*** **Alaric PoV**

Pain was all he felt as he flew through the air. He landed in the middle of the town square, creating a crater where he landed. He groaned in pain and turned back to his human form, bruised and battered.

Even the minor nicks and cuts from the one-sided sword fight hurt like hell after that landing.

"Top Hat Sabo…" he growled, "I will find you…"

"And kill you"

*** **Just under 3 years ago, Ace's departure**

Luffy had come to see him off as he had done for Sabo.

Right on Schedule the Sea King emerged in all its grandeur.

It took one look at Ace and turned around and went back into the water.

It gave one last roar that in Sea-King-ese meant, "Hell No! I'm not fighting that dude."

*** **Less than a year later, Marineford, Epithet-Giving Department**

"This meeting is the 19th meeting called to decide on the epithet of Portgas D Ace. So far the best candidates are, 'Cowboy Hat Ace', 'Cute-Freckles Ace', 'Foo Foo Cuddly Poo Ace' and 'Top hat's brother Ace'. Let us vote on which one we want, even though they are all terrible!"

*** **After the voting**

On the board in the front of the meeting room was written-

Foo Foo Cuddly Poo Ace – 21 votes

Cowboy Hat Ace – 19 votes

Cute-Freckles Ace – 17 votes

'Top-Hat's Brother Ace – 3 votes

'Sigh'. 'With great regret, I announce that Portgas D Ace's new epithet is-"The head of the epithet department was rudely cut off by the door being slammed open.

"Who dares to interrupt the great leader of the Epithet Department!?"

The interrupter ignored this statement and said instead, "Portgas D Ace finally has a Devil fruit! The Mera-mera no mi! And he named his signature attack, 'Fire-fist'!"

The entire hall burst into cheers, not considering that the Mera-mera no mi was highly dangerous and the fact that Ace had it was probably a bad thing.

*** **Later that night, Epithet Department Party**

Unbeknownst to the epithet department, there was a surprise department check scheduled for that day. A kindly old man was conducting it.

The Old Man, Hansel entered the department to find an exuberant party in place. He smiled nostalgically, he had used to like parties, the best place to break dance.

"Might I enquire what the occasion is?" said the Inspector.

"We're celebrating the fact that Portgas finally got a devil fruit!"

*** **Ship of the Spade Pirates**

"Hey Captain Ace, they updated your bounty!"

"Yeah, 80,000,000 beri Fire-fist Ace."

"They must have heard about my devil fruit." Said Ace casually.

"For some reason I thought they would name you something cute like… Foo Foo Cuddly Poo Ace."

Ace snorted in derision.

"No Chance"

*** **Thanks for reading. This isn't a very serious chapter but the important fact from this chapter is that Sabo has the Gomu Gomu no mi.**


	7. Friendly spar

**An: Thanks IITRNR for reviewing. I'm glad you like it. This is chapter 7 and I still don't have adequate funding to purchase One Piece from Oda… I'm getting there… some day**

*** **Present time (just after Luffy beats Morgan)**

The Marines who were left standing looked at each other for a long second before starting to cheer.

Luffy smiled. As he had hoped, it was only the Captain who was corrupt, which meant that there would be less of a headache in sorting this mess out for Smoker.

He took out his portable den den mushi and rang Commander Tanaka. In all honesty he should have done this earlier, but he had a lot on his mind so he had delayed his call to his ship.

"Captain, is that you?" came the worried voice of Tanaka. Tanaka was a real worrywart and had grown to like Luffy a lot over the few months they had been comrades.

"Hi Tanaka, I'm at Shell Town, can you come pick me up?"

"Yes, sir, it is such a relief that you're safe."

Luffy put down the den den mushi and asked the marines who the next highest ranked Marine was. It turned out to be a commander called Ripper (violent much).

Luffy was in the process of apprehending the unconscious form of Morgan when Roronoa Zoro, the prisoner he had saved from certain death came up to him and started to speak.

"You saved my life and my dream, if there's anything I can help you with, please ask."

Luffy considered Zoro's offer then said, "Join my crew."

"You want me to join your crew?"

"Yes"

'I do owe the Marine big time but if the marine got in the way of my dream, then I would have to leave…' thought Zoro.

Luffy could see the gears spinning in Zoro's head.

Finally Zoro said, "My ambition is to be the greatest swordsman in the world. You will face my sword if you get in the way of my dream… Captain."

Luffy looked at the man in a new light and began to really respect him.

"A Fleet Admiral will need the greatest swordsman in the world on his crew." Replied Luffy.

Zoro's eyes widened a bit upon hearing Luffy's dream but he smirked, "true."

As Zoro and he were leaving the base, Luffy said, "Send Coby to train as a marine with Vice Admiral Garp and say that Luffy sent him."

Zoro had been officially instated as a Marine Ensign.

*** **Later that day, on Luffy's ship**

"We should give this ship a name" commented Luffy.

"How about the Demon Sword?" Suggested Zoro.

"Awesome Seagull?"

"Blind Bandit?"

"Foo Foo Cuddly Poo?"

"Who said that?"

"Straw-hat Ship?"

"None of those, never mind, we'll think of one later." said Luffy.

*** **The next day**

"Sir, we have a problem." Said Tanaka

"What is it?"

"Ensign Jacob has gone into stress-induced coma."

"Noooooooooooooooo!" (Star wars style)

*** **A while later after Luffy has stopped crying**

"So, (sniff sniff) what is our next destination?"

"Orange Town, there are many reports of the Buggy Pirates so we should be careful."

"Sure thing, thanks Tanaka."

*** **Little while later**

"Hey Zoro, do you wanna practise your swords with me"

"Sure, but don't be too disappointed when I crush you."

The two took their stance, Zoro's more practised and rigid, while Luffy stood far more casually with barely any bend in his knees and ready to spring.

Zoro moved first, slicing at Luffy with two of his swords, while keeping Wado still sheathed. Luffy casually parried the first strike, which was more of an opener than anything.

Zoro got into the fight while Luffy calmly managed to parry every strike without breaking a sweat.

At this point Zoro realised that he wasn't duelling the riff raff of East Blue and took out his third sword and placed it in his mouth. He sprang at Luffy with renewed vigour.

Luffy continued to parry Zoro's strikes, moving a bit more now. All 4 swords in play were flashing and striking faster than the eye could see.

Luffy began to grit his teeth and finally pulled out his second sword.

Zoro was pushed onto the back foot as Luffy started adding in attacks along with his defence. Zoro knew that if he wanted to win, he had to end the spar soon as his stamina was reaching its last breaths while Luffy still seemed to be warming up.

"Onigiri!" yelled out Zoro, using his signature and strongest move in hopes to defeat Luffy quickly but instead of Luffy's chest being slashed, Luffy held both his swords out in front of himself in an X formation. All 3 of Zoro's swords clashed with Luffy's for a good few seconds before Zoro was overpowered and sent flying. Luffy smiled mischievously.

"I win."

*** **The next day**

"We've arrived sir!" said Tanaka as he pulled up the sails of their ship.

Luffy was the first one out of the ship, glad to finally be able to stretch his legs.

Oddly the town seemed to be deserted. Luffy went around looking for people but not finding anybody.

Out of the blue, he heard a woman crying out. Sounds of a fight were coming from the same direction.

Luffy sprinted towards where the sound was coming from. He unsheathed one of his swords and melted his free arm before jumping into the alleyway that the fighting was coming from. The fight ended just before he entered. An orange haired woman was lying on the ground, bloodied and beaten while 3 people who were obviously pirates were standing over her.

One of the men leered and started to say something before Luffy punched him hard, with an armament fist, sending the man flying into the wall.

The other 2 men spun around, one of them had a sword and swung at Luffy. His hit was parried by Luffy who then smashed his fist into the 2nd thugs face.

The third thug just fled.

Luffy turned to the woman who was breathing heavily and lying on the floor.

"Are you okay?"

*** **Nami PoV**

She had been beaten up by the 3 thugs who had been chasing her. She had put up a fight but she wasn't strong enough to take down 3 guys at once.

She had given up almost all hope of getting away with the map, or even alive when a person jumped into the alleyway they had dragged her into and beat up the 3 guys in less than 10 seconds and then asked her how she was.

The only thing she could think of saying was, "Who the hell are you?"


	8. Buggy the clown

**AN: I hope you like this chapter. Please review. I don't own One Piece, just the OCs.**

 **Thanks lostdog, phycopathonadiet and James for the reviews.**

 **Luffy being able to heat up his chocolate body is just a liberty I am taking. Since in canon, Luffy can manipulate his rubber body enough to make Gear 2** **nd** **possible without taking drugs, Luffy can heat up his body.**

"Who the hell are you?"

The orange haired girl's question surprised Luffy a little but he recovered quickly.

"Marine Captain Monkey D Luffy."

She looked up and noticed the insignia on his coat and felt a bit foolish.

"And you are?"

"Nami." She answered shortly, not wanting to tell him that she was a thief in case he arrested her for it.

'Not that they ever do anything' she thought slightly bitterly, thinking about good 'ol Captain Nezumi, who refused to do anything about Arlong.

With Luffy's observation Haki, he noticed that Nami was hiding something from him, he also narrowed his eyes when he noticed the logo of the Arlong pirates on her arm.

He started to say something, then decided not to. He didn't know what it was but his instincts were screaming at him to let the matter go.

'Maybe there are some extenuating circumstances that I don't know.' He decided.

"What are you doing here?" he asked instead as they walked out of the alleyway and into a main street.

She looked at him a little guiltily (not visibly, but easily observed with Haki).

"What are you doing here?" he repeated the question.

"Just visiting."

"Who, there's nobody here."

Nami saw a chance and said, "That's because of the despicable pirate who scared everyone out of town, Buggy the clown, in fact as a Marine, it is your job to capture him."

Luffy sensed Nami's intense hatred of pirates that couldn't be mimicked.

'There are definitely extenuating circumstances.' He decided.

"Where are the Buggy pirates?" asked Luffy.

'He's actually going to fight!' thought Nami shocked.

"A-At the pier." She stammered out.

Luffy took off towards the pier. Nami went in the same direction, making sure to stay in the shadows.

'I'm going to steal all of the Buggy pirates' treasure!' she thought.

*** **A while later**

8 Marines stood in front of the entire crew of the Buggy pirates.

"You are going to arrest me, don't make me laugh!" said Buggy with a vicious grin on his face.

Cabaji sidled up to him and whispered in Buggy's ear, "That's Roronoa Zoro, the infamous pirate hunter"

"So they might actually have a chance?" asked Buggy.

"Yes"

At that word, Luffy's marines burst into action.

Tanaka pulled out his katana and sprung into battle, slashing and killing the Buggy pirates without mercy.

Lieutenant John pulled out both his swords and casually stabbed the closest Buggy Pirate.

Lieutenant Kira pulled out a sniper rifle and retreated back a little before starting to snipe the Buggy Pirates, one by one.

Luffy stood in one place coolly, any enemy who approached him started frothing at the mouth and collapsed.

Once every one of the thugs and lackeys were either dead or knocked out, Luffy calmly approached Buggy who was quaking in his boots.

"Special flashy Buggy bomb!" yelled Buggy. He shot the cannonball at Luffy.

Luffy saw the cannonball coming and armament Haki'd his stomach. The cannonball hit him and was crushed by its own momentum against the armament Haki.

"H-H-Haki! In East Blue!" Buggy exclaimed.

Luffy smiled widely, "I am Marine Captain Monkey D Luffy, and you are under arrest!"

"Even with Haki, you can't beat me, the flashily great Buggy-sama!"

One of Buggy's hands (Bara Bara no mi) crept up behind Luffy and stabbed him in the back… or tried to.

The knife and the cut off hand passed straight through Luffy's chocolate body.

"A flashy L-L-Logia! Here in-"

"-East Blue, yeah." Luffy finished for Buggy.

"It's the Choco Choco No mi, the chocolate Logia fruit." Luffy continued.

Buggy paled ever so slightly before splitting himself into several pieces.

"You can't hit me flashily if you can't get a hold of me!" Buggy taunted.

"My conqueror's Haki had a pretty mean range." Mentioned Luffy casually.

Buggy whitened even further, "C-Conqueror's Haki!"

Luffy smiled and used his Conqueror's Haki to knock out Mohji who had been fighting a losing battle with Tanaka.

Tanaka pouted, "You should have left him to me!"

"Sorry"

Buggy decided to make a run for it.

'I can't fight a man with Haki!' he thought desperately.

He reconstructed himself behind a building, out of view of the Marines and then ran for all he was worth, until he crashed into someone.

"Get out of my flashy way you-"

Buggy had stopped speaking abruptly because the man he had crashed into was none other than Luffy himself.

Luffy cracked his knuckles threateningly.

"You're done for"

*** **After the capture of buggy**

A bloody and beat up Buggy was lying on the floor but Luffy wasn't focusing on him.

His observation Haki had picked up the orange haired girl from earlier sneaking around Buggy's ship and stealing all of the treasure.

Using his partially developed soru, Luffy sped to the spot where Nami was. She was carrying a comically large bag into a dinghy.

"So you're a thief."

Nami jumped and sprung around at hearing Luffy's voice.

Her eyes widened when she saw him, "You were supposed to be fighting Buggy, you worthless marines, bet you didn't even go close to him, to think I ever thought of relying on you, you damn-"

"Buggy is under arrest already."

Nami snorted, "There isn't a single scratch on you, there is no way you beat Buggy the clown that easily, no matter how strong you are!"

"Yes I can."

"No you can't!"

"Will you believe me if I show him to you?"

"Maybe."

In the flash of two sorus, Luffy was back and holding the beaten up form of Buggy.

"How did you move that fast!?" exclaimed Nami.

'This guy is so strong! He might be able to help with Arlong.' Thought Nami.

'Maybe she will tell me about whatever she has going with Arlong now' thought Luffy.

'Nah, nobody is as strong as a Fishman, even this guy can't beat him' thought Nami.

Nami seemed to be hesitant about telling him something so Luffy decided to just ask outright.

"Why do you have an Arlong symbol on your arm?"

*** **I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	9. Nami's secret

**An: I don't own One Piece, please review, I hope you enjoy**

"Why do you have an Arlong logo on your arm?"

Nami froze.

'How the hell does he know about that!?' she thought. She did the only thing she could think of, she punched him in the nose. His nose exploded into… was that chocolate?

"Devil fruit" answered Luffy to the unasked question.

"Say, are you by any chance a cook or a navigator, because we need one of both."

Nami, always willing to boast about her navigation skills said, "I'm the best navigator in all of East Blue!"

"Awesome, join my crew and become a marine!"

"Uh, what happened to questioning me?"

"I can feel the hate literally pouring off of you, when you talk about Arlong, I can tell you hate him, so come with me."

"You don't understand, I have things to do."

"Like what, maybe we could help you."

Nami forced down her hope for a saviour and said, "No you can't, I just have to buy something."

"From Arlong?"

Nami hesitated before saying, "No."

"Stop Lying."

"*sigh* Yes, from Arlong."

"Arlong… say, wasn't Nezumi supposed to be keeping tabs on Arlong?"

"That bastard is corrupt, he basically works for Arlong." Growled Nami, happy to get Nezumi in trouble.

Luffy frowned.

"What do you want to buy from Arlong?"

"I can't tell you."

"Please?"

"No"

"Pretty please?"

"Never!"

"I'll promise to help you."

Nami gave a mirthless laugh, "That's not a good idea, unless you want to fight Arlong."

"Sure, I can."

"What!"

"I can fight Arlong."

"You don't know what you're talking about!"

"Yes I do."

"You wouldn't be offering if you knew even the first thing about Arlong!"  
"I know quite a bit about Arlong and how he was chucked out of the Grand Line by the Marines and Jinbei."

"Yeah, but you obviously don't know the main fact…"

"And that is…?"

"Arlong is… a Fishman!"

"I know, but what is the main fact?"

"Arlong is a Fishman!" said Nami emphasizing the word 'Fishman' as if that explained everything.

"So what?"

"Fishmen are 10 times stronger than humans!"

"No they aren't."

"It's a proven fact!"

"No, the fact is that a fishman is 10 times stronger than a human of the same physical ability."

"That's just a technicality, humans don't stand a chance against fish men."

"The strongest man in the world isn't a fishman."

"How do you know!?"

"I've met him."

*** **An hour of arguing later**

"*sigh* Fine, I'll tell you" said Nami, exasperated outwards but ecstatic inwards.

*** **Later, Luffy's ship.**

"God damn it, Captain! You need to tell us before pulling your disappearing act!"

"Tanaka, I can explain."

"You'd better…"

*** **A little while later, after explanations**

"So she is going to be travelling with us for a while, huh." Said Roronoa Zoro, contemplating the orange haired woman.

Zoro had been quite disappointed about his fight with Cabaji. It lasted barely a few minutes before Zoro won with his signature onigiri.

He continued his daily spars with Luffy, increasing his skill, as Luffy helped him with swordsmanship.

"You have a lot of potential, but the East Blue weaklings aren't good enough to pose any challenge to you."

*** **Luffy's Marine crew meeting**

"We are heading to Conomi islands, and we have informed HQ about the change in direction. Fortunately, we don't have to change our route much but we will pass by Syrup Island on our way to Conomi. We will also be passing by the Baratie, the restaurant of the sea cooks."

"FOOD" shouted Luffy.

"Indeed, they do serve food… I recommend that we recruit a cook from there because Ensign Jacob is in critical condition and we really don't want his death on our track record…"

Jacob waited for Luffy to nod his assent.

"We also have thus extremely difficult and convoluted paper work that is 200 pages long that you need to fill out for your capture of Buggy the clown as well."

Luffy started shaking a bit.

"You also have the confusing paper work for our change of course that is 149 pages long."

Luffy started sniffling.

"Smoker also sent back the 768 page paper work for the corruption report and firing of Axe-Hand Morgan."

Luffy started to bawl his eyes out.

Nami and Zoro were both thinking the same thing.

'What the hell have we got ourselves into?'

*** **That night, on Luffy's Ship's deck**

"1129, 1130, 1131, 1132, 1133, 1134, 1135." panted Luffy.

Luffy was doing squats with a 20-tonne boulder on his back. He had had to heavily reinforce his arm with armament Haki to prevent them from Collapsing and breaking completely.

*** **Nami's room (An: there are no other girls so she got the entire 'girls' cabin)**

Nami was having trouble sleeping. She couldn't help the guilty feeling that she was sending Luffy to his death.

She walked out onto the deck of the small ship, staring out into the distance when she heard grunting. She looked in the other direction and was surprised she hadn't looked that way before.

Luffy was doing squats with a huge rock that went higher than the sails.

"1141, 1142, 1143, 1144" panted out Luffy as he continued doing squats.

The blackness on Luffy's arm was fading rapidly as he closed in on 1250.

Nami had sat down and was literally staring at Luffy. She had been for the last 70 squats or so.

Luffy finally stopped the squats, threw the rock out to sea and fell to his knees panting at '1394'.

"Almost there…" he whispered panting hard.

"Almost where?" Nami found herself walking out of the shadows and asking.

"Nami? What are you doing here?"

"Couldn't sleep."

Luffy thought a sec before saying, "If it's about Arlong, he doesn't stand a chance against me."

"I can't shake the feeling that you will lose.

"I won't."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I've fought stronger fish men than him and won."

*** **Next day**

"We will be arriving at the Baratie tomorrow, captain."

"Good."

"We are also starving, Jacob still hasn't woken up from his coma as of yet and without him we don't have a cook."

"I know that. Did you think I haven't noticed that I'm not getting 24 meals a day?"

*** **Marine budgeting department**

The Head of the budgeting department was a raven haired woman who went by Janet.

"I have called his emergency meeting, to discuss an extreme dip in funds by the amount of 2 billion beli in our budget."

A department member raised his hand, "But the entire marine budget for everything is only 90 billion beli.

"The spike has come from the nourishment section." Said the HOD.

"But the budget for that section is just 6 billion for the entire marine force!" said the same department member gasping.

"All 2 billion of that is coming from just one ship"

The department member started laughing hysterically, "Nice joke, the average marine battleship eats only 600,000 beli worth of food!

"… It isn't a joke… and it wasn't a battleship, in fact it's a small captain's ship in East Blue."

"No way, you're definitely pulling our legs!"

"The name of the captain is Monkey D-."

"Ooh." Said the entire department finally understanding.

"Luffy" finished the HOD.

*** **Thanks for reading and reviewing if you did.**


	10. The Baratie

**AN: I don't own one piece, I hope you enjoy.**

*** **Luffy's ship, Next day**

"Captain **,** we've arrived at the Baratie." Yelled out Kira from the crow's nest.

"FOOD FINALLY!"

John sighed and handed over a bag of beli to Tanaka who was smiling smugly.

"I should never bet against you." Said John.

"Yeah, it was kinda obvious that 'food finally' would be the first thing Luffy would say."

"Yeah, it was."

Another marine ship pulled up next to theirs. It was almost 5 times as big as theirs and had the look of a luxury liner about it. The only way you knew it was definitely a marine ship was the seagull flag that they were flying.

The marine that strutted off of it was obviously rich. He wore a white pinstripe suit and had pink hair that was just a bit darker than Coby's but still did not look very manly.

The man walked up to Tanaka who towered over him. And sneered, somehow managing to look down on the taller man.

"Hey, you stupid underlings, salute me for I am the great Lieutenant Fullbody, the hero of the East Blue marines!" said Fullbody, (most likely just to impress his girlfriend)

Tanaka did not respond. Fullbody, not wanting to look like a fool said, "Listen to me you stupid underling"

Tanaka did not respond.

Fullbody then attempted to punch him in the gut but found his so called 'iron-fist' in the crushing grip of Tanaka's.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the rank of 'commander' is higher than 'lieutenant'."

"You're right, but you're not even a lieutenant let alone a commander."

"How the hell do you know?"

"I checked all the patrol schedules to make sure no higher up marines would be-"

Fullbody then proceeded to shut up because his slow brain had just processed that his girlfriend was still there, and saying that they came to this restaurant purely because he was the highest ranked guy around was probably not a good idea.

"I see, well, we had a recent change of course due to unforeseeable circumstances so I guess HQ ( **An: HQ while in East Blue refers to Smoker and his office of people, HQ in the grand line is marineford** ) forgot to update."

In truth, Smoker had been specifically requested by Luffy to not update their course, so as not to alert Nezumi of their change in course and indirectly inform Arlong of their plan, or at least their destination.

"I am Commander Tanaka, second in charge to Captain Monkey D Luffy."

*** **Fullbody's girlfriend**

Her name was Isabelle. She was an orphan. She had been raised by poor but greedy shop owners. They had instilled in her the value of rank and told her to marry the highest ranked marine she could.

At her village that had been the extremely feminine pansy Lieutenant Fullbody. She had swallowed her disgust at the thought of marrying him and thought about all of the money that he had. That was why she started dating him and the only reason she didn't knee him in the balls every time he so much as looked at her.

Now however, she had finally met a man with a higher rank than Fullbody. His ship didn't look like much but he was ever so handsome and big… and after Lieutenant Pink-Hair-Spray-Accident (an unfortunate story that he had told her) any regular looking man would look like the hottest man on earth.

"Let us depart and enjoy our carefully put together meal, my dear." Said Fullbody, trying to sound snooty. He leaned in to kiss her.

She kneed him in the balls.

*** **On the Baratie**

Luffy unwittingly got mistaken for Fullbody. He strode in with his marine coat and all.

His stomach rumbled loudly. The chefs took one look at his coat and misidentified him as the Marine Lieutenant.

"Sit down, we have reserved your seat." Said Patty in his most polite (not very) voice.

"Thanks!" grinned Luffy. His stomach then growled so loudly that the remaining patrons covered their ears.

*** **A few hours later**

"The 113th course is ready."

"Awesome!" said Luffy.

A blonde cook with a cigarette in his mouth walked up to Patty and said, "All of the other cooks except me have collapsed."

"Good, join my crew!" said Luffy happily, "We need a cook with actual stamina."

All of the cooks still standing sighed.

"Please take the shitty cook with you." Said Patty.

"He's a disgrace to this restaurant." Said another cook

"His rubbish cooking reflects on us all!"

"What are you talking about? He's the best cook here." Said Luffy quite plainly.

Patty snorted. "You don't have any taste-buds if you think that!"

"It's you who's got no taste-buds, you shitty cook!" said Sanji, defending his defender.

"Yeah!" Luffy agreed with the defender of his defence of the defender.

"Yeah!" the blonde cook ( **An: Sanji)** agreed with the agree-er of the defender of his defence of the defender.

"Yeah!" agreed Luffy agreeing with the agree-er of his agreement with the agree-er of his defence of the defender.

"Yeah!" agreed Sanji agreeing with the … I'm just going to give up now.

Luffy and Sanji kept agreeing with each other for at-least another hour.

*** **A few hours later, Baratie**

"Yeah!"

"Yeah!"

"Yea-" Luffy was interrupted by the entry of a starved looking man dressed like a pirate.

"Give me food… please…"

"What'll you pay with?" asked Patty snidely.

The starved pirate held a gun up to Patty's head.

"I can pay with lead." He said.

Patty kicked the gun out of the starved pirate's hand and threw him out of the restaurant, into the back exit.

*** **Baratie, back exit**

Sanji and Luffy went out back. Sanji had stopped 'yeah-ing' to cook for the man.

When Luffy asked him why, he said, "I know how it feels to be hungry."

Presently Luffy followed Sanji out back.

"Here you go." Said Sanji putting the plate of food in front of the unidentified pirate.

"You don't have to-."

"I want to." Sanji interrupted.

"My name is Gin, by the way. I'm the first mate of Foul Play Don Krieg. If there is anything I can do to repay you…"

"There's no need… Gin."

Patty walked out back.

"You're feeding that idiot eh, Sanji. What is he paying with?"

"I'm sorry. I don't have anything." Said Gin looking miserable to have to give back the food.

Luffy tossed a few coins at Patty's head which the cook deftly caught.

"There you go. He's a paying customer now." Said Luffy.

Sanji and Gin both smiled at Luffy relieved.

Sanji because he didn't have to fight with Patty. Gin because he got food after all.

*** **Later**

Gin waved wildly from his dinghy that Luffy had provided him. He was going back to foul play Krieg. Luffy had tried to convince him to be a marine but failed.

"I won't betray him!" Gin declared. Luffy respected his well-meaning (though he doubted somebody with 'foul play' as their epithet would reciprocate the feeling) and lent him a boat to get where he wanted.

*** **Later**

Gin and a bigger man burst into the restaurant. The bigger man quickly identified himself as Don Krieg. He demanded food. After eating all of the food, like the ungrateful ass that he was, he declared that he would be taking over the restaurant and demanded food for a hundred people.

Sanji and Zeff provided it.

*** **Later**

A wrecked looking ship pulled up at the Baratie. It was huge. Several men got off the ship along with the captain, Foul Play Krieg.

"Hand over the ship!" said Krieg, grinning wide as his minions clustered behind him, ready to fight if required.

A small boat came into view in the distance and approached quickly. Luffy had a sense of deja-vu then realised who it was.

Dracule Mihawk, his swordsmanship teacher… ooh this would be good!

"Have you come to finish me off, the great Krieg?" Kraig challenged.

"No, nothing of the sort, you just interrupted my nap." Something caught Mihawk's eye. He spun around to look at Luffy.

Zoro had been telling Luffy about finally meeting the best swordsman in the world, and how after Luffy's short training, he was actually going to stand a chance. Luffy stayed silent, not wanting to crush anyone's dream.

"Luffy? Is that you?" asked Mihawk in disbelief.

"Ya" said Luffy at the same time as Zoro said, "You know Hawk-eyes!"

"mmn-hmmn" agreed Mihawk.

Zoro strode up to Mihawk confidently and said, "I challenge you to a duel of swordsmen!"

Mihawk glanced over at Luffy who nodded slightly and said, "Fine" and pulled out his knife.

Zoro raised his eyebrows, annoyed with Mihawk's nonchalance.

"One doesn't fight a bug with a battleship." Explained Mihawk.

Zoro sighed and took out all three of this swords. He went at Mihawk all guns blazing.

Luffy had taught him to coat his swords with Armament Haki. His Haki wasn't good enough to be visible, but it definitely hardened his swords a lot. All three songs were parried quickly before Mihawk jumped back a bit as Zoro fluidly recovered, having been prepared for this level of strength. He went all out, slicing hard with all three swords. Mihawk's tiny blade worked hard to parry all three strike coming from different directions. Zoro built up his speed to the point where Mihawk was moving so fast you could barely see him.

Mihawk started fighting back, finally having assessed Zoro's strength. Mihawk stabbed at Zoro but Zoro managed to parry, the shockwave making Zoro lose his balance and stumble backwards.

With just a few more strikes, Mihawk had managed to put Zoro on the back foot. Mihawk casually sent an air-blade at Zoro, all three of his swords were barely strong enough to fight off the air-blade.

Zoro knew he was losing and had to finish this quick, if he had any chance of getting out this match with his pride intact.

"Onigiri!" Zoro performed his signature move expecting it to have some effect. The shockwave was huge but Mihawk calmly stabbed Zoro with the tiny knife.

Mihawk waited a few seconds, waiting for Zoro to back out, to accept defeat and run back to hide behind Luffy. He had to admit that Luffy had trained him well but not well enough to challenge Mihawk all that much. However, he had been a fun opponent… if he used his knife.

Zoro stood there, his chest impaled. He refused to back out.

"Why do you not take a step back?"

"That would mean accepting defeat, I will never accept defeat."

"You can't challenge me."

"I know… but acknowledging that by stepping back would be trampling on my dream and denouncing everything that I live for… I'D RATHER DIE THAN GIVE UP!"

"Admirable resolve… I will give you the honour of finishing you with my Yoru."

Zoro continued to stand there defiantly staring in the face of his death.

"A swordsman's greatest shame is a strike to the back." He answered Mihawk's unasked question.

"True enough." Mihawk slashed Zoro's chest sending him tumbling into the water. Sanji jumped into the water to retrieve the falling body of Zoro.

Luffy attacked Mihawk enraged by Zoro's supposed death.

"How f*cking dare yu, you bastard Hawky!" Luffy attacked Mihawk, sending several air-blades at Mihawk who deflected them all with Yoru.

"I haven't killed your swordsman, he will live, and he has too good a resolve for him to die here."

Luffy's eyes softened, "My apologies Hawky but the way it looked…"

"There's no need for you to fight me… but I wouldn't mind a spar. Haven't had a good one in ages."

Luffy nodded and attacked, far more gracefully than Zoro had. His strikes were more concise, and his blades were coated with the traditional Haki black. Luffy sent air-blades at Mihawk who sliced through all of them with a single slice. Mihawk brought down Yoru hard slamming it into Luffy's left sword, which he had held up to counter Yoru.

Luffy's right sword on the other hand was swiping low, aiming for Mihawk's ankles. Mihawk dragged Yoru down, protecting his ankles, then sending two close-range air-blades at Luffy who jumped back a little. He approached Mihawk again with a flurry of hits, all of which Mihawk defended against.

On and on their duel went as Luffy and Mihawk went at it, not holding any shots. Zoro was gazing at the duel, with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. The ripples of power and stray air-blades had many people ducking for cover. Several of the Krieg pirates were knocked out or killed by the stray air-blades and shockwaves.

Don Krieg was getting seriously annoyed and scared by the fight going on in front of him. He knew that he could never match that level of the two competitors but he could rely on his reliable tricks and machines.

After almost an hour of fighting, it was becoming obvious who was going to win. Both contestants were sweating buckets and slowing just a tad, but it was Luffy that was completely on the defensive now.

Mihawk kept getting nicks across until finally his sword touched Luffy's neck. Luffy fell to his hands and knees, tired out from the intense sparring.

"Good one, Luffy." Said Mihawk, running a hand through his hair that was wet from all of the sweat.

Krieg waited for Mihawk to leave before bursting into laughter.

"Who's going to save you now? The Grand-Line person is gone and your Marine is out for the count."

Tanaka and Zoro both unsheathed their swords in response and ran at Krieg's remaining me, demolishing them quickly. Luffy's marine crew was fast but severely outnumbered. The huge numbers swarmed against the fewer marines. It was obvious that the marines were fighting a losing battle. Luffy was still panting on the floor.

Finally he stood and everybody else (except his crewmates) fell unconscious, foaming at the mouth. Only Krieg and Gin stood, albeit unsteadily.

"98 down, 2 to go."

*** **I hope you enjoyed.**


	11. Sabo's first mate (Sabo chapter)

**An: Thnx IITRNR for the review. I still don't own one piece sadly, no matter how much money I'm saving up for the eventual purchase.**

*** **Random Island in the Grand Line**

Top Hat Sabo was travelling with his brother 'epithet-less' Ace. Sabo and Ace had been co-captaining for a while, but Sabo had decided to split up into separate pirate crews.

Sabo already had the huge bounty of 90,000,000 beli which had been updated after he ate the Gomu Gomu no mi.

Ace had parted with Sabo on Nasingse Island. The Spade Pirates and Sabo had built a small caravel, fit to carry 10 people max. The figurehead of the ship was a rough approximation of a lion's head wearing Sabo's signature top hat. The Jolly Roger had been painted by Sabo himself, a regular skull and crossbones wearing a top hat.

Sabo wanted to recruit his first crewmate from Nasingse Island. So far his all of his leads on that island had all led him to one person, a man named ( **An: All of my oc names will be last name, first name so as not to cause confusion)** Das D Pacha. It was unknown what exactly his powers were but rumours of his incredible strength floated around the island.

He had saved the town from pirates a couple of times, and was revered by the citizens. The marines however were incredibly apprehensive of him. What really put them on guard was that not many knew his power.

Sabo had spent a week, and used his developing short-range only, observation Haki to locate Pacha.

Pacha was a recluse, he lived in a small hut in a forest. He had been tricky to locate, because he was so secretive about his exact location and the forest was huge.

Presently, Sabo approached the hut with a degree of caution, he was trying not to underestimate the man.

Sabo knocked on the rickety door of the hut. After a long pause, the door was slowly opened. The man who opened it was wearing a black vest and baggy jeans. He was lean but not particularly muscular. Sabo knew him to be 22 years old but the man was obviously prone to premature hair loss as could be evidenced by the bald spot in the centre of his round head. He had tanned brown skin and glasses.

"What do you want?" asked Pacha.

"Hello, my name is Sabo, May I come in." said Sabo remembering to be polite.

Pacha regarded him with a degree of suspicion, "Top Hat Sabo, 90 million beli, eh…"

Pacha looked him over before a look that basically said, 'I can take him if I need to' came over his face.

"All right then." Said Pacha walking back inside his house. From the inside, the hut was cosy. There was only one room in it. The small bed was off in one corner, while the small kitchen set was in the other. A small round table with a den den mushi and one plate sat in the middle of the hut. There were two chairs around the table.

Pacha sat down and gestured to the other chair. Sabo sat down as well.

"So what do you want?"

"I want you to join my pirate crew."

"Don't be ridiculous, I don't mind pirates personally but I don't need the trouble that comes with the profession."

"Are you sure, don't you have a dream to pursue?"

"I do, but I don't need to be a pirate to pursue my dream."

"What is your dream?"

"To become the greatest mathematician in the world."

"Mathematician, huh."

"Yup. I love my maths."

"Join me."

"I refuse."

"I refuse"

"What do you refuse? You're the one offering."

"I refuse your refusal."

"How stupid are you?"

"I think you'll find me to be quite intelligent. The stupid ones are my brothers."

"Then you should understand that no is no."

Sabo thought for a second before getting up suddenly and saying, "Will you join me if I beat you in a fair fight."

Pacha considered it before saying, "Fine, if you win, I'll go with you and become a pirate. If I win, then you leave me alone. Deal?"

"Deal." Affirmed Sabo.

Pacha lead them to a clearing in the forest. Sabo nodded appreciatively.

"This is good." Said Sabo.

Pacha didn't respond, instead started counting down from ten.

"1, go." Said Pacha before smiling wickedly.

Sabo circled Pacha, who looked to be completely at ease.

Suddenly Sabo lunged at Pacha, "Gomu Gomu no… Bazooka!"

"Numba-Numba Manipulate." Said Pacha calmly.

Pacha pointed at Sabo's approaching figure and said "set speed 0.1 metres per hour."

Sabo immediately slowed down incredibly, barely moving at all. His fist were still a flurry, but couldn't move forward at their usual speed. Sabo's face held surprise.

Pacha pulled out a mathematical ruler that was 1 foot tall. It had looked to be just a regular ruler, attached to Pacha's waist but once Pacha pulled it out, the blade at the end of the ruler was obvious to the eye and very sharp.

Pacha attempted to stab Sabo with the ruler however only Sabo's speed had been reduced not his reaction time. Sabo coated his stomach area with armament Haki so the knife did not affect Sabo at all.

After using armament Haki, Sabo remembered that armament negated devil frit abilities.

'Might as well give it a try' thought Sabo, coating his entire body in armament, finally being able to move normally again. Thinking fast, Sabo activated second gear.

'If he can't see me move, then he can't point at me' thought Sabo. Sabo used the extra speed provided by the second gear to move quickly out of Pacha's view.

Pacha's eyes widened upon seeing the armament Haki but he recovered quickly.

"Numba Numba manipulate – set my mass to nil." Said Pacha, with no mass, Pacha kicked off the ground and floated upwards, dodging the jet Gatling that hit where he had been standing.

Abo missed the shot but moved quickly and sent a quick gomu gomu no red hawk speeding up at Pacha.

"Numba Numba manipulate – set pain receptors to 5% ( **An: If pain receptors were set to 0, then Pacha wouldn't be able to feel anything at all, like the ground under his feet, therefore it is more logical to set the pain receptors to 5% rather than 0** )."

The attack connected hard and Pacha was sent flying upwards and eventually came down, hitting the ground with a painful sounding thud. Despite looking bloodied and beaten up, Pacha calmly got up, barely feeling the hit.

"Numba Numba manipulate – multiply my strength by 10." Pacha seemed to suddenly get bigger. He grew more muscular and his vest started straining to hold his body in. He aimed several swipes at Sabo.

Sabo was still in gear 2nd but was quickly tiring. Using his gear 2nd speed to dodge all of Pacha's attacks was hard, especially when keeping up armament Haki on his body to prevent Pacha's numba numba manipulation.

"Numba Numba manipulate – multiply my speed by 10!" Even with the speed boost, Sabo was faster than Pacha, managing to evade Pacha's fists.

Growing frustrated, Pacha said, "Numba Numba manipulate – multiply my speed by 1000!"

Pacha grew incredibly fast. Moving faster than the average Soru user.

Despite Sabo's quick reflexes and Observation Haki, there was only so much Sabo would protect himself. Pacha landed several hits but none strong enough to injure Sabo's rubber body.

"Enough!" Sabo bellowed.

"GEAR THIRD!" Both of Sabo's arms grew incredibly huge, to the size of a Giants' and punched Pacha… hard.

Pacha flew into a tree and coughed up blood but got up again. His body was almost dead, but he didn't feel it.

He got up, frustrated with his weakness he yelled out, "Numba Numba manipulate – Multiply my strength by 10,000!" His vest tore open as Pacha began to bulk up. He gained an eight-pack right in front of Sabo's eyes. His biceps and triceps grew inhumanly large.

Pacha's incredible strength left Sabo no other option.

Sabo deflated his arms and jumped back. He re-inflated his arms ut this time, not to the size of a Giant's. He inflated his muscled in particular, then reinforced his arms with the strongest armament Haki he could muster.

"GEAR FOURTH!"

He then jumped at Pacha. The two fought, evenly matched in strength.

Pacha's control was rapidly slipping and he knew it. He had to end this… and quick.

"NUMBA NUMBA MANIPULATION – MUPTIPLY MY STRENGTH BY 1 MILLION!" Pacha let loose a huge scream and his body grew even larger. His muscles were crazily huge and easily bigger than Sabo's inflated ones.

Sabo approached with caution but nothing could prepare him for Pacha's first hit. The fist almost knocked Sabo unconscious. Sabo coughed up tons of blood and was tremendously weakened. He would be knocked out if not killed in the next hit.

Pacha approached, ready to give the final blow, moving at the speed of sound and with the strength a million times stronger than his own. Just a single centimetre away from Sabo's face, Pacha stopped.

Pacha let loose a blood-curdling howl of pain as his energy finally reached its limits, not only from the considerable damage dealt to him by Sabo but also from the stress he had put his damaged body under to multiply his strength so rapidly. His body had barely coped with all of the strength it was channelling.

When Pacha's energy reached its limits, his pain receptors returned to 100%. The sheer pain knocked Pacha out.

In Pacha's last painful second of conscious thought, he though two words.

'I… lost?'

*** **Can you guess what devil fruit Pacha has? I made it myself but at least the basics should be pretty obvious. Review if you think you know what Pacha's fruit is and does.**


	12. An epithet complaint

**An: I don't own one piece, please review. Thanks for the review, Trebeh, I have updated Sabo's bounty.**

*** **Baratie**

"You insolent brat!" screamed Krieg.

Gin used a little more common sense to realise that if Luffy could knock out 98% of the crew without even touching them, he could probably beat the two remaining without too much difficulty. Gin took a step back, apprehensive and wary of Luffy as he should have been.

Krieg on the other hand pulled a huge cannon out of his pants (overcompensating much?) and fired a huge cannonball that moved almost 20x as fast as a regular cannon.

The huge cannonball shattered on impact with Luffy's armament-ed arm. Krieg pulled out his bomb-stick and started waving it around, creating explosions around himself, in a misguided attempt to scare off Luffy.

Luffy however was completely unfazed and continued slowly approaching Krieg.

Once Luffy was close enough, Krieg slammed the bomb-stick into Luffy's head as hard as he could. Upon impact, the bomb exploded into its biggest explosion yet. The mushroom cloud dissipated to show that Luffy had not a scratch on him.

Krieg backed off a little, now completely white. He shot all of his spikes at once. All of them went straight through Luffy's chocolate body.

Luffy raised his arm, pointing towards Krieg.

"Chocolate Eruption!"

Luffy's arm turned to steaming chocolate, which increased in temperature dramatically. It started steaming in earnest and increased in pressure. After almost 5 seconds, Luffy let the jet of scalding chocolate 'erupt' towards Krieg, who attempted to dodge, but got struck in the face, leaving 3rd degree burns.

Krieg let out an extremely high-pitched scream as he tried to bat away the burning on his face. Meanwhile, the chocolate that was on his face began expanding and covering his entire body as it started cooling down dramatically. In just a few seconds it had covered his entire body and had frozen him into a chocolate statue.

Gin, whose resolve had been questionable at best because of his morals gave up fighting now that his idol, Don Krieg, the only reason he was even fighting this match that he didn't want to was defeated and most likely dead.

Gin raised his hands in defeat, not even trying to continue.

"I surrender."

*** **Directly after the events of chapter 11 'Sabo's first mate' Marine Epithet Department**

"Sir, the head of the Marine Bounty Department is here to see you."

"Send him in." said the head of the epithet department.

The head of the bounty department entered.

"There has been a lot of distressing news among the rookies recently."

"Really, and what of that concerns our departments?"

"Top Hat Sabo has split up from the Spade Pirates to form his own pirate crew. As a pirate captain, we are updating his bounty to 139,000,000 beli. Also, he has recruited Das D Pacha, user of the numba numba no mi."

"Pacha, so we need to create an epithet for him… this'll be a hard one… but after Fire-fist Ace, this will be a walk in the park."

"Yes, we are informing you of Top Hat's split from the Spade pirates because he is going to go on a recruiting drive, which will create a lot of work for your department and mine too."

The Head of the epithet department nodded seriously.

*** **Epithet department meeting**

"This meeting has been called to decide the epithet of Top Hat Sabo's new crew-mate Das D Pacha."

"Isn't he the neutral guy from Nasingse who refused to join the marines?"

"Yes he is."

"I thought he disliked pirates."

"Well he has joined a pirate crew specifically that of Top Hat Sabo, who had also split up from the Spade Pirates and created his own pirate crew, the Top-Hat pirates."

"Does anyone have any ideas about what the epithet of Das D Pacha might be?"

"Well, he uses the number fruit so maybe… math-master Pacha?"

"Okay… anything… better?"

"Number-Lord Pacha?"

"Fine, more suggestions?"

"Operator Overlord?"

"What does operator mean?"

"Oh that's like the plus, minus, multiply and divide and all of those symbols are called operators."

"Okey, that's a cool epithet then, Operator Overlord Pacha… any last ideas?"

"Numeral Majesty?"

"Where did that come from?"

"Uhh, my mind?"

"That was a rhetorical question, dumbass."

A random member raised his hand extrememly high, wiggling his fingers like he had something important to say.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Can I use the toilet?"

"Yes."

Another member raised their hands in a similar fashion, wiggling their fingers and standing on their tippy toes.

"You may go to the toilet as well."

"No, I don't wanna go to the toilet, I have a suggestion for Pacha's epithet!"

"What is it?"

"It is literally the best epithet ever!"

"What is it?"

"You will never hear an epithet as good as it is, I mean in your entire career, you will never come across an epithet as cool!"

"What the hell is it!?"

"Foo Foo Cuddly Poo Pacha!"

*** **Sabo's ship**

"Are there really only two of us?" asked Pacha.

"Yes"

"Only two?"

"Yes."

The news coo dropped the newspaper on top of Pacha's head. He took the newspaper and looked through the bounty posters. It was a pretty slow news day, so there were only two new bounty posters.

"Top Hat Sabo – 139 million, Cool, they updated my bounty!" Sabo read off of the first poster.

"Foo Foo Cuddly Poo Pacha… 55 million… WHAT THE F*CKING F*CK. THOSE F*CKING MOTHER-F*CKERS BETTER BE READY. I'M GONNA KILL THEM AND TEAR THEIR BODY INTO TINY PIECES!" ranted Pacha with shark-teeth.

"You know, little known fact, the only complaint that a pirate is allowed to register to the Marines, are complaints about epithets. Even believers of absolute justice who believe that pirates should all drop dead still believe that a pirate should be allowed to register epithet complaints."

*** **Marine Complaint Centre**

Top Hat Sabo and *sigh* Foo Foo Cuddly Poo Pacha, strode up to the Marine Complaint Centre.

Pacha stood in line at the complaint desk. He was behind an annoying old lady who wanted to complain about her grandson's work hours.

Finally it was his turn to register his complaint. The attendant at the desk took one look at the faces of the two wanted men, Top-Hat Sabo and Foo Foo Cuddly Poo Pacha and yelled for security.

Chief Commodore ( **An: all of this is happening before Luffy becomes a marine** ) Sanshoo burst out of the security office, his sword already out, he was ready to kick some ass, hoping for a promotion or at the very least a better assignment, on patrol or something.

His sword has almost reached Sabo's throat when Pacha spoke.

"I have come to register an epithet complaint."

At those simple words, the attendant halted Sanshoo.

"Return to the security office, and be on guard. I have to deal with their epithet complaint as per Marine guidelines, after that you can attempt to arrest them."

Sanshoo nodded stiffly. He wanted to bring the two wanted men in desperately but even he had to admit the importance of epithet complaints.

"Very well, madam."

*** **Flashback, just after Pacha recovered from the fight with Sabo**

"So what devil fruit do you use?" asked Sabo.

"That would be the numba numba no mi."

"What does it do?"

"Basically, I can manipulate anything that has a set number. For example, I can change the speed that things move at. I can also change things like air pressure and such. However my most powerful ability is probably to apply operators to things like my strength and speed and others strength and speed. For example, in my battle with you, I multiplied my strength by 1 million. Which means that I become 1 million times as strong as I am right now. The only downside is that all of my abilities require a proportionate amount of power to maintain. For example I can double my strength and keep it doubled for several days, maybe even weeks at a time. However when I multiply my strength by 1 million, I can old it for a couple minutes, when I'm at maximum power, but when I'm beat up like I was when we fought, I can hold it between 10-20 seconds. It is always a huge risk to use 1 million as a multiplier because if it doesn't end the fight, then I'm basically done for because it ends up draining all of my energy as well as severely straining my body."

"That's a pretty rad power!"

"Yup, it's the strongest paramecia if you can use it well enough."

"Cool."

"Isn't it?!"


	13. Shipwreck

**An: I hope you enjoy. I still don't own One Piece (Surprise?) I don't know why I even bother with An's anymore considering that you should probably know that I don't own One Piece and that I want you to enjoy my writing. Thank you Patrick and Trebeh for the reviews. When I created this fic I wasn't really thinking about relationships for Luffy but I am seriously considering making this a LuNa (LuffyxNami) fic. I do like some other pairings for Luffy but that is the only one that I feel that** _ **I**_ **could write.**

*** **Baratie**

Gin spoke to Luffy as the rest of the Krieg pirates were carted off to prison in Fullbody's ship. Luffy had vouched for Gin and said that he would interrogate him personally. As the highest ranking marine officer involved, his word was accepted.

"Become a marine, Gin. You're a good man and you'll make a good marine."

Gin let out a mirthless laugh, "Like they'd let an ex-pirate like me be a marine, the best I can do is form my own pirate crew that follows moral justice."

"Don't worry, I can secure you a position as a Marine."

"Can you really?"

"Yes."

*** **Later, Baratie**

"Join my crew, Sanji."

"No"

"Please!"

"Non."

"Pretty please?!"

"Nahi." ( **An: Hindi for 'no'** )

"Don't you have a dream to accomplish?"

"Well… yes I do, have you ever heard of the All Blue?"

"No I haven't." said Luffy, even though he had, if only to let Sanji talk about it.

"It is the place where all 4 blues meet, all the fish in the world are there, available to be cooked, it is the ultimate paradise for a cook…"

"Is it your dream to find the All Blue?"

"…Yes…"

"It's a crazy dream…"

"Hey!"

"But not as crazy as mine… join me Sanji, we're both men with dreams. You're not going to find All Blue in this stinking restaurant in East Blue."

"I know… but I can't leave Zeff after all that he's done for me."

"I understand."

*** **Later, Baratie**

"Take the kid with you… please, I'm begging you." Said Zeff.

"No." came the short reply.

"Why, isn't he good enough for you?"

"He is better than 'good enough' but I won't force him if he doesn't want to come. He says that he owes you something, so I won't force him to come with me."

"True."

*** **Later, Baratie**

"You called me, Cook Zeff?"

"Yes I did."

"Why?" prompted Sanji.

"I want you to go with the Marine kid and accomplish your dream."

"But Cook Zeff, I owe you everything, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I left you here."

Zeff looked Sanji in the eye, "When I broke my leg, I lost my greatest weapon. I had to let go of my dream, because I lost my leg… accomplish my dream for me Sanji, not only for yourself but also for me…"

Sanji gazed into Zeff's eyes, searching for the truth.

After a long silence, Sanji nodded.

"Yes, I will go with the Strawhat marine."

*** **That night, Luffy's ship docked at the Baratie**

"I'm running out of time, Luffy, if I don't return soon, Arlong will burn down the village."

"We will get there soon, we'll leave here tomorrow, and stop just one night at Syrup village then sail straight for Conomi Islands."

*** **Next morning, Luffy's ship docked at the Baratie**

Luffy had woken up his crew early and forced them to pack quickly while Nami quickly got prepared to navigate to Syrup village.

Just as Luffy was about to leave, Sanji ran out of the Baratie, with a huge bag on his back.

"WAIT UP… CAPTAIN LUFFY!"

Sanji, using his impressive leg strength jumped onto Luffy's ship from the Baratie's dock. Tears were streaming from his eyes as he looked back at the Baratie and waved.

The last that Zeff heard from Sanji was, "The next time I see you, I'll have found All Blue!"

*** **Later, on the ship**

"Luffy, A blonde man jumped out of the oven!" yelled Sanji.

"Oh, that's just Jacob, what did you do to him?"

"Kicked him in the jaw and knocked him out… who the hell is he?"

"Our previous cook."

"Do you do that to all of your cooks?" said Sanji raising his leg and getting ready to fight his way off of the ship.

"No, Jacob passed out a while back. We left him in the oven, because with no cook, co one was using the oven. Say, do me a favour and leave Jacob in the infirmary."

Sanji kicked Luffy's head, "I'm a cook, you shitty bastard!"

Luffy rubbed his head where Sanji had hit him.

"My bad."

*** **Later, Luffy's ship**

"Ya know, nobody ever told me what happened to Anjali." Said Luffy casually.

Tanaka blinked, "You really don't know?"

"No I don't know, why should I?"

"We left Anjali to head the newly formed Marine branch at Orange Town."

"Really."

*** **Later, Luffy's ship**

"There is a huge storm approaching, sir." Reported Tanaka.

"I told you to call me Luffy." Whined the captain of the ship.

"There is a huge storm approaching, sir!"

"No problem."

"Nami said that the storm will be too big for our ship to weather efficiently without major damage."

"Then avoid it."

"It is already too late for that, captain. We will hit the storm straight on."

"What is the best course of action?"

"You're the captain, you're supposed to decide."

"What are our options?"

"1. We hit the storm straight on. 2. We attempt to steer out and hit the storm on our left side. 3. There is no third option."

*Awkward silence*

"So, which one should we choose, Luffy?"

"The fourth option."

"If you were listening then you would know that there are only 3 options."

"The third one then."

"The third one was to do nothing."

"Yosh, let's do it!"

"Are you even listening to me?"

"Nope!"

*sigh* "So we're taking the storm head on?"

"Sure."

*** **Syrup village**

Usopp ran through the village, like he usually did, only this time he had actual news.

"There's a marine ship shipwreck down at the coast!"

The town people started chasing Usopp as was the tradition.

'They don't believe me, so I'll show them.' Thought Usopp.

Instead of running towards the forest as he usually did, he ran towards the coast. Finally the entire crowd of people chasing Usopp reached the coast and saw for real, a wrecked marine ship with a few people crowding around it.

"The ship is wrecked!" Tanaka yelped.

Luffy wretched out some more water that was left in his lungs. Nami smashed her fist down on Luffy's head.

"This is your fault for telling us not to do anything!"

"Ow! No it isn't, when did I say that?"

"When you chose the third option, remember?" Tanaka said.

"Ooh That!"

"Yes."

The crowd huddled around the strange people. Usopp stepped to the front, his legs shaking.

"I-I am C-C-C-captain Usopp the brave, the captain of th-the Usopp-pirates. I command 8 hundred thousand men, approach me is you dare!"

Luffy took one step forward, "I'm not scared of you, even if you have a million men, pirate! I am captain Monkey D Luffy!"

Luffy then paused and reached out with his Haki.

"But you only have 3 men anyway… well more like three boys."

Usopp held up his slingshot, loading a flame star.

"Still… I will protect this island."

"Really… you're pointing a weapon at me? That isn't for making threats. When you point that at somebody then you're willing to risk your life on the outcome of the fight that you're starting."

Usopp squeaked as he fell to his knees.

"As I thought, a real warrior of the sea is far scarier than I could ever imagine!"

Luffy squinted closely as Usopp's face and Luffy's face lit up after a good few seconds.

"You must be Yassop's kid!"

"H-How do you know my dad… n-n-no don't tell me!" Usopp's face turned a sick purple, then white then red with anger.

"You killed my father!" Usopp roared and shot 2 flame stars at Luffy. He then followed up with a sake star and another explosive sure-shot fire star. Luffy sliced every single one into several pieces before they could hit anything.

"You bastard!"

"I didn't kill Yasopp."

"I will f*cking kill you!"

"I didn't kill Yasopp. He's a member of the red-hair pirates and a close personal friend."

"You damn- what?"

"Yasopp's my friend." Luffy clarified.

"You know my dad!" said Usopp, his expression suddenly changing from one of rage to one of happiness.

Everyone sweat-dropped at the sudden change of emotion.

"Yes."


	14. Guardian of Hell Alaric (Sabo chapter)

**An: This will be a Sabo chapter. Unlike the last two Sabo chapters, this one takes place at the same time as Luffy's adventure. If you think I own One Piece, then I'm flattered but at the same time wondering which psychiatrist I should call.**

*** **Undisclosed location**

The bounty hunter Alaric planned his latest ambush for Top Hat Sabo. He had tried several times to kill the famous pirate but failed.

He had been stalking Sabo for almost the whole day, but his first mate Pacha and his second mate Chin had stuck with him all day.

Finally Sabo was alone, in an alleyway. Alaric snuck up behind him and transformed into his Cerberus form immediately. He pounced at Sabo, all three heads snapping at Sabo's one. Each head was big enough to devour Sabo whole. The middle mouth came down upon Sabo's head, intent on tearing it off.

Instead of Sabo's head coming off, it was instead Alaric's teeth which broke.

'God Damn it! It's that Haki stuff that some people try, how is his so strong?' he thought.

Alaric yelped in pain. Sabo spun around, swinging his sword as his arm stretched. Because of his rubber body, the sword almost hit Alaric in the middle head. Alaric moved backwards quickly, enabling his dark purpley black aura of hell.

"Bite of Hell!" Alaric yelled/roared. The Cerberus seemed to grow in size. His eyes turned blood red. His muscles started to bulge more than they did before. His dark aura encompassed the entire alleyway, it had been a bright alley when they arrived, but now it was almost pitch black, with what little light there was being tinted purple.

Alaric looked truly sinister. His aura would have frozen a lesser man in place, but Sabo was not a 'lesser man'. In fact he was a much greater man.

Sabo leapt up, and yelled, "Gear Second!"

Sabo moved fast, but Alaric moved faster. Not even in Gear 2 was Luffy fast enough to avoid all of the hits. He was bleeding heavily from his right shoulder and his left knee was all but busted.

Sabo took a deep breath and used his newly developed move.

"Jet Soru!" Sabo literally vanished. The only way to locate him would be to mathematically calculate his location relative to the huge spurts of wind that were being raised by Sabo's speedy movement (that or observation Haki). He was moving at at-least 6-7 hundred km/h.

He slammed his fist into Alaric's middle jaw.

"Jet Pistol!" Not to mention, his hand was already armament-coated… ouch!

Alaric's aura immediately faded, and he went flying into the nearest wall. He transformed into his human form, with a broken jaw, that would probably have been more severe if he didn't have such a strong skin and bone when he was a Cerberus.

Sabo halted his gear second. He was still red in the face, panting a little.

"I wi' kill yu wan dei!" said Alaric, attempting to speak properly through his broken mouth.

Sabo looked at him, "Join my crew."

"Why would I do that?"

"I like you, so join my crew."

"Even after all the times I've tried to kill you?"

"Yes."

"… I want to, but I'm honour-bond to keep fighting you or accept that I have been bettered."

Sabo's face turned a little harder, "Then accept it. There's no shame in being weaker than your captain."

"You are not my captain!"

*** **Next Day**

"Commence Operation: Assassinate Top-Hat-394." Said Alaric under his breath.

Sabo walked into the clearing in the forest, on a morning jog. He was wearing a white sleeve-less vest that was drenched with sweat. He was jogging while holding up a 5-tonne boulder, which's original weight had been 200 kilos but had been increased, courtesy of Pacha (Happy to help, captain).

Alaric knew he would be tired and holding a huge boulder would slow down his response reflexes. He had 20 gunmen whom he had hired with the bounty of the 200 million pirate, Black Bat Langstrom. His gunmen were the best. Each of them were being paid 20-mil for the job.

As Sabo slowly jogged through the large clearing, 20 bullets came towards his head, each at a different position, 1 through the nape of his neck, 2 through his brain, 2 aiming for each eye, 4 going for his open panting mouth, 1 for each nostril, 2 for each ear, another 2 for his throat, and finally 4 aimed at different points of his hairline.

In a split-second, Sabo had dropped the rock and spun around, using observation Haki to locate and catch the bullets. After that several more bullets aimed for him, which he deflected off of himself by using his armament Haki.

Sabo sent out a concentrated pulse of Conqueror's Haki, as strong as he could (pretty considerable) attempting to knock out the gunmen before he had to fight them hand-to-hand.

Several men fell out of the tall trees. They were all huge, each one at least 7 feet tall, towering above Sabo. Their muscles bulged, and they were all wearing metal armour and a black mask with a sniper's scope attached to their right eye.

Despite Sabo's immense conqueror's haki, they were all still conscious, though they had fallen to their knees.

Not wanting the fight to last long, Sabo activated gear 2nd and immediately went for the big guns (gatling pun!).

"Jet Gatling!" Sabo yelled, his fists moving so fast that they couldn't be seen without haki. The hitmen who had already gotten back to their feet, jumped out of the way of the fists. A few of the more unlucky ones were knocked out cold, the speeding fist breaking the armour of the hitmen. The remaining hitmen pulled out their swords and charged Sabo.

"Gear 3rd!" Sabo inflated his arm and armament coated it. All of the swords clanged against the armament-enforced gigantic arm uselessly.

"Gigant Pistol!" The huge fist sent the hitmen flying. Sabo's arm de-inflated back to normal. Sabo fell to his knees panting, while this would not even have been a little troubling when he was at full power, he had already jogged over 70 kilometres with a 5-tonne boulder on his back, so he had a right to be tired.

As Alaric crept up behind Sabo, with a sword in both hands and a grin on his face, Sabo's observation haki was activated.

'What the hell, another attack.' Thought Sabo.

Despite his extreme exhaustion, Sabo stood and whirled around driving his fist into Alaric's jaw, sending him flying backwards, both swords clanging out of his hands.

Alaric got up, unsteadily, his vision still spinning.

'How did he know I was coming? In fact how does he always seem to protect himself?' thought Alaric as he transformed into his Cerberus form.

The giant Cerberus slammed his paw down onto Sabo's head but Sabo gripped it with an inflated hand, and broke it.

Alaric let loose a yell of agony and transformed back to his human form.

"God Damn it! Why can't I beat you?!"

"You can't beat me because you aren't strong enough." Said Sabo amicably, as if that was a fact of life.

"That doesn't explain how always know when I'm attacking and how you make your body hard enough to break my bones!?"

"Oh that, that's Haki."

"This is Haki!" said Alaric in disbelief.

He had heard of the mystical power of will that was possessed by the strong new-world pirates. He had never thought that he would witness it in his life in the first half of the Grand Line.

"Yup."

"But… how… This is the first half!?"

"I'm just getting a head-start, besides what do you think got me a bounty of 450,000,000 beli. The World Government doesn't just hand out bounties that high to nobody."

"But…But…But…"

"Join my crew!"

"Why do you always say that!?"

"Uh… Because I want you on my crew. The level of determination you have is astounding, you kinda remind me of my brothers."

"Very well then…"

"Huh?"

"I accept the invitation, captain Top-Hat."

"Call me Sabo."

*** **Marine Epithet Department**

"Top-Hat had recruited the infamous Paradise bounty hunter, Alaric. It is up to us to give Alaric a scary epithet that will make the public fear him as much as he needs to be feared. Let us commence our brain-storming session."

"How about triple-tongued, cuz he had three heads when he is in Cerberus form?"

"Nah, some 9 mil idiot up in Shabondy took it, don't you remember? It was just last week."

"I was on leave last month."

"Oh, well it's taken."

"Anyway, I was going to suggest Black-Puppy Alaric."

"Ummmmmmmm."

"Kiss-Me-Puppy Alaric?"

"Really?"

"Of course!"

"Foo Foo Cuddly Poo Alaric?"

"This is getting really old, Johnston." Commented the Head of Department dryly.

"The transcript readers are getting bored with the repetitive pattern that our meeting always take."

"There are transcript readers?"

"Didn't you know? All of our transcripts are published onto the snail-net via the computer snail."

"Oh."

*** **Sabo's ship, the Top Pride**

"You have a bounty already Alaric."

"Really?"

"Yup."

"What is it, I've always wondered what my bounty would be."

"Guardian of hell Alaric, 367 million beli."

"Cool."

 **Thanks for reading. Please review.**


	15. Captain Kuro vs Captain Luffy

**An: This will be the Syrup village chapter. I really didn't like this arc but I'm writing it anyway just because I want Usopp to join the crew. It may be horribly written so be warned. Thanks for reading this far. Please Review.**

 **Thanks for the review, 'guest'. I'm not done with the story yet, so you'll have to wait for updates. This story will not be done until I mark it 'finished'. I don't like waiting for authors to upload chapters either, but it is a fact of fanfiction so you'll just have to wait for me to upload. I will keep uploading, even if it takes a couple of days.**

 **I still don't own One Piece Sadly and this Author's note is way too long so I'll cut it off here.**

 ***** Syrup Village Café**

"Awesome Luffy! I never knew my father this well myself!"

"He was an amazing guy and an amazing sniper."

"Amazing Yasopp! As sniper-y as a sniper can be! Amazing Yasopp! I love dad dearly!" Usopp burst out into song out of pride for his father. ( **An: See Amazing Mayzie from Seussical the Musical** )

Luffy started laughing uncontrollably.

Once Luffy had stopped laughing, Tanaka nudged him hard.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

'The Ship" Tanaka mouthed to Luffy.

"Oh yeah, is there anywhere we could buy a ship from around here?" asked Luffy.

"No." replied Usopp shortly.

"Maybe the person who lives in the mansion could help us…" considered Luffy.

"What Mansion?"

"That one."

"Oh, there's nobody in that mansion, it's abandoned…"

"I think I'll check it out anyway."

"No! Don't."

"Uh, why not?"

"Because…" Usopp hesitated, trying to think of a lie to tell.

"Anyway, I have to go now, bye, the bill is on me." Said Usopp before sprinting away at top speed.

"Weird."

*** **Later, Kaya's mansion**

Usopp was sitting on the tree outside Kaya's window, telling outrageous stories. Luffy was trying to persuade his crew to go to the mansion.

"It's not our business, sir."

"But you were the one who said we needed a new ship!"

"Yes, but we don't need to bother a young sick lady, the butler said that she needs her rest."

"But Usopp's already there, talking to her!"

"Haki?"

"Yup."

*sigh* "Okay then."

Luffy and his marine crew trooped up to Kaya's mansion. The door was opened by a butler. Luffy frowned at him for a few seconds.

"I feel like I've seen a picture of you somewhere."

Kuro's brain was going a mile a minute. He was considering the possibility of the marine knowing his identity from his wanted poster. The marine looked harmless but he was a captain and they don't make just anybody a captain in the marines. Though he did consider that that idiot, Morgan, whom he had duped, did get made a captain. However that was after 'apparently' defeating him, the great Kuro.

From this he deciphered that a captain was the rank awarded to one who was strong enough to defeat him, which meant that the skinny raven-haired marine could be a threat to his plans.

"What do you want, coming here again and again." Demanded Kuro.

"We want to ask your mistress whether she could provide us with a ship."

'If I get Kaya to give them Merry's ship, then they'll be off before my plan is put into action and will be unable to interfere with it.' Thought Kuro as he nodded.

"Sure, right this way, Mr. Marine."

*** **Kaya's room**

Kuro entered Kaya's room with the Marines in tow. Usopp who was at the window glanced towards them and almost fell out of the tree.

"W-Why are you guys here!?" He squeaked out, frightened that they would scare his favourite ojou-sama.

"Oh, we're here to request a ship from the mistress of the mansion." Said Luffy happily.

"Who are these people, Usopp?" asked Kaya, looking confused.

Kuro looked between Usopp and Luffy, wondering whether to introduce the marine or to insult Usopp. He decided on the former.

"Mistress Kaya, this is captain Luffy of the marines, he is here to make a request."

"DO you know these people, Usopp?" asked Kaya.

"Y-Yes, they are subordinates of mine."

"But you're a pirate and they're marines."

"Oh, uh…"

"We met Usopp this morning, I'm friends with his father. We're friends now too." Supplied Luffy helpfully.

"Any friend of Usopp's is a friend of mine." Said Kaya happily, shaking Luffy's hand.

Kuro was getting bored so he started bullying Usopp.

"Son of a pirate, ne ne na ne ne!" said Kuro, dancing around like a high 5-year-old on hallucinogenics while sticking his fingers up his ears and sticking his tongue out.

Usopp sweat-dropped

*** **An hour later**

"So let me get this straight. You guys are marines and friends of Usopp. You are asking for a ship for which you will pay me."

"Yes."

"Sure, let me introduce you to the Going Merry. It's my ship. I wouldn't normally sell it to you, but you're marines and you're also Usopp's friend, so I'll sell it to you."

"Thanks a lot, Kaya."

*** **A while later**

Luffy and his crew trooped down to the western docks along with Kaya and Kuro… oh I'm sorry Kurahadol ( **AN: I'm not sorry at all** ).

Kaya pointed to a caravel-class ship.

"Meet the Going Merry. It's not much but-."

"It's awesome!" said Luffy enthusiastically.

*** **The next day**

Kuro walked down to the local Snailmart ( **An: One Piece Walmart** ) to get the groceries for Mistress Kaya's lunch.

'One Last time!' his brain shouted mentally in glee. Today was the day of his plans. The pirates would attack at noon ( **An: I changed it a bit, it was dawn in canon** ) and there were no marines to interrupt his plans… or so he thought.

Luffy strode up behind Kuro with a purpose.

"You're under arrest."

Kuro spun around quickly alarmed and surprised.

"What for, I'm just a butler."

"No you're not, Kuro of a thousand plans!"

"Shit… how do you know?!"

"Anyone who's ever looked at your bounty poster would know Kuro. I can't believe that nobody here remembers your face from the bounty posters 3 years ago."

Kuro cursed under his breath before pulling out his knives from inside his jacket. He stuck them between his fingers like claws before starting to sway.

He knew that Luffy would be a challenge to beat, so he was going all out immediately.

He started moving incredibly fast, moving round and round, hitting random things, leaving gashes in storefronts. Luffy was thanking his lucky starts that he had evacuated the area earlier that morning.

Kuro was moving as fast as a slow soru but his eyes couldn't keep up with his speed so he didn't have any aim.

Luffy could sense him properly with his observation Haki. As soon as Kuro got close, Luffy reached out with one hand and grabbed Kuro by the top of his head, stopping Kuro immediately.

Chocolate seeped out of Luffy's hand, covering Kuro's body and turning him into a chocolate statue. Luffy made sure to leave the chocolate just about thin enough so that air could enter and Kuro wouldn't asphyxiate. He would be unconscious though.

"Night Night."

*** **Thanks for reading chapter 15. Please review. I am going to be writing another fanfiction alongside Strawhat Marine. It is based off of a challenge by joe63129. It will be a batman/harry potter crossover. Look at the challenge brief s/11818950/1/Harry-Potter-DC-Crossover-Challenge. Please read if you are interested in either batman or harry potter or both.**


	16. Luffy vs Arlong

**An: I hope you enjoy this chapter! Please review, fav, follow and all of that stuff. If you're interested in Harry Potter or Batman, please check out my new fanfiction, The Wizarding Bat. Thank you ChrisFagger for the review. I appreciate your honesty if nothing else.**

*** **Outside the village**

Kaya was the angriest Usopp had ever seen her. Apparently, according to Luffy, Kuro had been a pirate, an evil one at that, who planned to steal Kaya's fortune.

Suffice to say Kaya did not believe him. Despite lacking any form of training in armament Haki, somehow she had managed to leave a handprint on Luffy's cheek.

"If you don't believe me, my proof if walking up the hill at this very moment." Said Luffy calmly.

"Of course I ( **An: that's 20,000 words!** ) don't believe you, you piece of shit!"

"Wait for it."

Several pirates came running up the hill, led by the odd man who had been walking through the village the previous day.

They came to a screeching halt in front of the marines, Kaya and Usopp.

Jango, apparently the leader of the pirates started stuttering.

"W-W-What have you done to Captain Kuro!"

"Captain Kuro?" Luffy asked innocently.

"The chocolate statue! That's definitely captain Kuro!"

"Is it now?" said Luffy again pretending to be innocent.

"Yes!"

"Is that enough proof for you, Kaya?"

"…Yes." Kaya sighed out, tears coming to her eyes.

"Good."

Luffy waved one of his hands at Kuro's crew, knocking them out cold with a concentrated burst of Conqueror's Haki.

"Good Night."

*** **Kaya's house, later**

The Kuro-Statue was standing in the corner, lonely and forgotten. Kaya was sitting in the corner in a near catatonic state. Ever since her butler had been revealed to be the infamous Kuro, she hadn't spoken a word, well apart from 'yes' but that was just acknowledgement.

Luffy was talking to East Blue HQ (basically Smoker) about his recent capture of Kuro.

"Marineford has promoted you to the rank of Commodore, Luffy. They've also told me to order you to come to Loguetown immediately after your business in Conomi. You and I have an undercover mission to go on."

"Okay, we'll be as quick as can be in Conomi."

"Do that, Commodore White-Hunter Smoker out."

"Commodore Straw-hat Luffy out."

Luffy put down the receiver on Kaya's transponder snail.

Nami who had been fidgeting in the corner came up to Luffy and whispered in his ear.

"We really need to get to Conomi and quickly, otherwise Arlong will kill the villagers!"

Luffy nodded and went up to catatonic Kaya.

"Can we still keep the Going Merry?"

Kaya got up shakily, "Y-Y-Yes. You saved me from Kuro, you deserve it." She spat out the word 'Kuro'.

"Thanks!"

*** **Dock, 10 minutes later.**

Luffy and his crew were about to leave the dock, when they heard a rumbling noise.

"What could that be?" Luffy wondered out aloud.

The rumbling crew louder and finally they could see what was causing it.

Usopp was rolling down the hill, with the huge round bag attached to his back.

"Stop me!" Usopp yelled.

Luffy, Zoro and Sanji all stuck out one foot, which Usopp hit and came to a stop.

Usopp got up unsteadily.

"I will see you out at sea!" said Usopp gesturing wildly.

"… But the next time I see you guys we will be enemies for I will be the greatest pirate in the world!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Luffy.

Usopp deflated a bit.

*sigh* "I know I can't become the best… but I will become a brave warrior of the sea!"

Luffy smiled.

"You know, you can become a brave warrior of the sea as a marine too."

Usopp looked up at Luffy.

"You would let me join you?"

"Get on, Usopp, we're already friends."

Usopp got on.

*** **On the ship**

"Hello and welcome to the budgeting meeting. I am Nami and I will be your host and treasurer for the day!"

"Oh joy."

"I will now proceed to spout some economic babble that will allow me to scam the rest of the crew of their cuts of the salary." Nami continued.

Literally no one was paying enough attention to catch what she said, except Usopp.

"What the hell?"

*** **Conomi Islands**

Nami's heart twisted in a mixture of excitement and scariness.

She was back at her home, Conomi Islands and this time she had hope… hope for freedom.

However that hope started to seep away very quickly as she saw Arlong waiting at the docks, his arms crossed and several fishmen behind him.

"You have betrayed me Nami. First I will destroy your backup…"

Nami's face drained of any colour it held.

"…And then your village!"

Nami burst into tears. Suddenly she felt something being stuffed onto her head and saw Luffy walking ahead of her slowly.

She touched the item on her head, to find that it was Luffy's straw hat.

*** **Flashback**

"This straw-hat… is my greatest treasure!"

*** **End Flashback**

Luffy walked up to Arlong slowly, Zoro, Sanji, Tanaka and Usopp right behind him… Some more willingly than others (e.g. Usopp).

"You…"

Arlong grinned widely and nastily.

"…made my navigator cry!" shouted out Luffy, drawing back his fist and punching Arlong's jaw, so hard that he went flying back into the wall almost 10 metres behind him.

Luffy's fist was steaming where it had made contact with Arlong's jaw.

'Thank you Kizaru!' thought Luffy before his legs started to steam as he heated the chocolate there. He pumped more and more chocolate to his legs, the chocolate beginning to make his legs bulge.

His legs began steaming a lot. His bare feet turned to chocolate hoses. The pressure in his legs built up very fast. His legs were really beginning to hurt as Luffy pushed the pressure of the chocolate higher and higher, but did not let it burst out.

Arlong got out of the rubble of the wall. Many scratches and cuts were visible on his body, but they didn't seem to affect him.

At his appearance, the rest of Arlong's fishmen burst into action.

At the same time, the marines led by Tanaka started moving to fight Arlong's men.

John pulled out both of his rapiers and attacked the nearest fishman. He made several complex stabbing motions and the fishman's chest suddenly showed many cuts, with blood bursting out, before the fishman collapsed.

Kira pulled out two close-range machine guns and held both out at arm's length, one in either hand.

He began shooting at the closest fishman who didn't even bother to dodge.

"Fool! Bullets don't work on fishmen! We're superior creatures!" shouted out the fishman.

"Oh really?" asked Kira humorously.

The fishman would have probably replied in the affirmative but his chest was already riddled with holes from the bullets.

Kira moved on to his next target.

Zoro pulled out all 3 of his katanas despite still being severely injured from his fight with Mihawk. Ansel had patched up the wound as best as he could but still a cut of that level didn't heal within a week.

Zoro began cutting down the closest fishmen.

With a wicked gleam in his eye, Sanji pulled one leg up, rather like a praying mantis, and then burst out several kicks, knocking down many fishmen.

Very few of them stood up again.

Usopp took a deep breath and pulled out a huge slingshot that was powered by some dials that Kira had found.

In the few days since they had set sail, Kira had taken Usopp under his wing. Usopp's aim was almost perfect and not even Kira could aim better, however his weapons were crude at best. Thus Kira and Usopp had started developing a new slingshot

"Fishmen… meet the prototype KABUTO!" Usopp proclaimed pulling out a huge version of his Kabuto. He began rapid firing his Kabuto, sending fire-bird-stars and sunflower stars all hitting the two nearest fishmen, putting them down hard.

In total there were about 400 fishmen fighting 7 marines (Ansel had stayed back to prep the makeshift infirmary and Jacob was still in a coma).

43 had already been knocked out.

Arlong and his 3 generals, Hachi, Choo and Kuroobi watched the commenced battle with rage.

Arlong spoke with barely concealed anger.

"Hachi, Choo, Kuroobi finish this!"

Hachi pulled out his swords.

Choo sucked up some water.

Kuroobi bent his legs slightly preparing for a kick.

Zoro and Sanji finished off the fishmen that they were fighting and sprinted to the front.

Zoro attacked Hachi, all three swords out. Hachi met Zoro's strike with his 6 swords, letting out a small shockwave where their blades met.

Sanji went for a 'collier shoot' immediately, and Kuroobi met Sanji's foot with his own, causing another small shockwave.

After a small nod from Kira, Usopp approached Choo, shooting out a fire bird star.

Meanwhile, Luffy's legs were incredibly huge.

"Chocolate Jet Propeller!" Luffy yelled out, before letting the chocolate explode out from his feet.

The chocolate hit the ground so hard that it propelled Luffy upwards incredibly fast, at least 6-7 hundred kilometres per hour.

Once Luffy reached the height of the few clouds, he turned around, pushing another huge bust of chocolate propelling him downwards even faster, gravity helping his extremely fast descent. Now he was moving at least 1000 kilometres per hour.

He was aimed at Arlong.

Luffy pulled out one of his swords and coated it on armament, the sheer speed they were travelling at made the sword catch fire.

Arlong sensing that there might be a fight coming pulled out his saw-like sword, the Kiribachi and held it up.

Luffy came down hard, his sword hit the Kiribachi causing a huge shockwave. The Kiribachi shattered into tiny pieces and the shockwave sent Arlong flying back into the broken wall again.

Luffy landed on his feet, causing the earth to crack under his feet. At least 50 fishmen around him were taken out by the huge shockwave that Luffy caused.

Arlong picked himself up again, an incredibly bloody mess.

"Sh-Sh-Shark on darts!"

Arlong flew towards Luffy like a giant torpedo… and passed right through Luffy's chocolate body, emerging out of the other side and flying into the sea ( **An: They are still on the dock** ).

Luffy pouted a little, put out.

'I wanted to punish that half-fish bastard a little more for what he put Nami through!' thought Luffy.

Arlong jumped out of the water, apparently refreshed though still bloody.

"Shark on… TOOTH!" Arlong yelled as he moved even faster at Luffy like a fish-human torpedo. The point of the attack was probably to spear Luffy on his incredibly sharp and nearly (emphasis on nearly) unbreakable long nose.

What actually happened was a bit different.

Luffy coated his hand with armament before sticking it out and plucking Arlong out of the air.

Arlong had been moving at a breakneck speed but Luffy managed to catch his nose, and hold him still.

Arlong snarled and pulled his nose out of Luffy's hand. Then realising that there was nothing holding him and he wasn't standing, he fell to the ground, slamming his face and creating a hole with his nose.

Meanwhile Zoro was barely managing to keep up with Hachi. Normally Zoro would have crushed Hachi, his intense training with Luffy along with his already considerable skill and 3-sword-style would have seen him win A-ok. However he was severely injured, and a battle with a competent swordsman was bringing out, quite painfully, how restricted he was by his injuries.

'I have a wound that would kill a normal man… but if I want to be the best I can't be normal… I have to be extraordinary… I can't let this beat me!' thought Zoro.

"What's wrong, Roronoa Zoro? Can't you face my 6-sword-style?" jeered Hachi.

"Let the real fight begin."

*** **Marine Epithet Department, 5 months ago**

The Head was in a bad mood.

"We have to come up with an epithet for a shitty marine captain in East Blue of all places."

"But he's only a captain. An East Blue one at that. Why do we, the great Epithet Department have to get involved?"

"Cash."

"Oh."

It was common knowledge that the head hated people who spent money to try and get a better epithet or in this case, an epithet at all.

"All in favour of just calling him Rat-Whiskers Nezumi."

"Aye." Said everybody in the room.

*** **Cocoyashi Village, 5 months later**

Marine Captain 'Rat-Whiskers' Nezumi walked through Cocoyashi like he owned the place.

Gen, the local police guy (also coincidentally Nami's father figure) walked up to Rat-Whiskers.

"What business do you have in Cocoyashi? Have you come to take down Arlong?"

"No, of course not."

"Then get the hell out of here."

"I'm looking for a woman named Nami… or rather her house." Said Rat-Whiskers deviously.

"Why?" said Gen suddenly on guard.

"We have… evidence that she is a thief. We are here to search her premises."

"No, unless you're here to fight Arlong, get out of here."

"I must insist." Said Rat-Whiskers. One of his corrupt marines whispered in his ear.

"Ah yes, it seems my marines have located the abode of the thief."

Nezumi strutted into nami's house followed by Gen.

"Any luck?" asked Nezumi.

"No, but those tangerine fields look suspicious."

"Tear them up. It's 100 million beli for god's sake."

"How do you know the amount!?" asked Gen, suddenly getting why the marine was here.

"Lucky guess." Smirked Rat-Whiskers.

Gen shook with barely contained rage.

After the marines had left with all of the money, Gen rallied the people of Cocoyashi village.

"For years we have silently suffered, because of Nami's attempt to free us. We didn't want to disrupt her efforts but now, she has been betrayed. We have waited these long years… but today we will fight!"

*** **Dock, Arlong pirates vs Luffy's marines**

Gen and his Cocoyashi rebels went to Arlong Park but found the place deserted. They then headed to the docks, where sounds of a fight could be heard.

They came across the biggest fight they had ever seen. Over 300 fishmen lay unconscious or dead. 3 marines were fighting most of the remaining cannon fodder. But most surprising of all were the 4 marines.

A green-haired swordsman completely owning Hachi.

A blonde man in a suit with swirly eyebrows who was consistently getting the better of Kuroobi and a long-nosed kid with a huge slingshot fighting off the 3rd Arlong commander Choo.

Then there was the man who was beating up Arlong.

Despite several shark-on-tooths, Arlong was failing hard. He finally fell to his knees in front of Luffy, unable to move any further. Luffy however had taken barely a scratch.

He put one hand on Arlong's head. Chocolate flowed out of his hand and covered Arlong's body in chocolate, making him a chocolate statue. However unlike Kuro's case, Luffy did not let Arlong live.

Within 3 minutes of being turned into a chocolate statue, Arlong had asphyxiated to death.

"Onigiri!" Zoro finished off Hachi.

"Collier shoot!" Sanji finally finished off Kuroobi, though worse off than Zoro.

"Water cannon!" shouted Choo sending his strongest attack at Usopp.

"Ultimate Fire Bird Star!" Usopp countered. The fire and water collided in mid-air creating a lot of smoke.

Amidst the chaos Usopp finished it off.

"Sake star!" "Fire Bird Star!" Usopp finished it off with those two stars in quick succession. The fire-bird set alight the alcohol on Choo's body.

Kira walked up to Choo's burning body. Choo was still moving about though on fire. Kira knocked him out with the butt of his smoking machine gun.

"Good Job Usopp."

 **Thanks for reading chapter 16. I hope you enjoyed. Once again, check out my new fanfic 'The Wizarding Bat' if you are interested in either batman or Harry Potter.**


	17. Marine Gin vs Pirate Knifer Arekuso

**An: Hope you enjoy. Thanks 'Guest' for the review.**

*** **Cocoyashi village, 2 days later**

The party was still in full swing.

Gen was displaying his incredible talent at several dance-forms, including breakdance, heavy metal head-nodding, party dancing and the best of all, Bollywood dancing.

Luffy was handing out free hot-chocolates.

Zoro was drinking down his 23rd bar.

Sanji was unsuccessfully seducing his 223rd woman.

Tanaka was sitting in the corner of the party-house that was previously known as Arlong Park and drinking his tea.

Kira and his protégé, Usopp were at the blacksmith's shop, working on Kira's new weapon idea.

Ansel and the recently recovered Jacob were sitting on the ship, listening to Tryhardninja songs on the radio-radio-mushi.

Nami was talking to the grave of Belle-mere.

*** **Short while later**

The party was slowly dissipating, Gen had finished off his 36-hour long dance marathon with a quadruple backflip.

Zoro had drunk every single bottle of sake on the entire island.

Sanji had unsuccessfully tried to seduce every woman in the village (1004).

Tanaka had fallen asleep in his corner, his cup of tea in his hand.

Kira and Usopp were still working diligently into the night.

The radio-radio mushi had started playing Justin Bieber that wasn't 'love yourself' so naturally it had been smashed against the wall. ( **An: No offense if you actually like Justin Bieber** )

Nami had returned to her house and fallen asleep.

Luffy was wandering the streets making several den-den mushi calls.

"Hello Marineford. This is Commodore Monkey D Luffy."

*** **Marineford**

"Commodore Luffy has requested permission to recruit marines, Garp sir."

"Very well, let him assign up to the rank of captain."

"You'll allow him!" the soldier said, startled.

Garp grinned.

"Yes."

*** **Cocoyashi**

Luffy finished up his call to Marineford. He had wandered up to a graveyard.

He noticed Gen standing in front of a grave.

Luffy walked up to him.

"Whose grave is that?"

Gen glanced at Luffy, his face grim.

"Belle-mere, Nami's mother."

Luffy suppressed a giggle, but Gen noticed.

"You think it's funny?" said Gen calmly but angrily.

"If you'd had French lessons, so would you."

"Why?" asked Gen, suddenly increased.

"It translates literally to pretty mother though that would be wrong grammar in French."

"Really?"

"Really."

After a long silence Gen made the first sound.

"If you ever take away Nami's smile, I will kill you."

"Don't worry. I won't."

*** **Departure, next day, Cocoyashi**

Nami sprinted through the crowd, weaving through, in a very convoluted pattern that allowed her to steal everybody's wallets.

She jumped onto the ship as it was leaving and turned around, the mass of wallets falling out of her shirt.

"GOODBYE EVERYONE!"

*** **Orange-town**

39 million beli pirate, Knifer Arekuso was on the run from Marine Chief Commodore Lenon.

He originated from the North Blue but he had been chased through West Blue, South Blue and the Grand Line by Lenon.

He was seriously considering retiring.

He had finally completed his tour of the blues by landing up in East Blue, bouncing from island to island.

For whatever reason, probably pride, Lenon had refused to give up. He had fought Arekuso once, in North Blue, and had barely gotten away with his life. He had managed to get in a lucky stab and run.

Lenon had taken the blow to his pride very badly by persisting to chase the ratty looking pirate with two knifes.

Presently Knifer Arekuso was on an island with a small town on it.

It was Orange town, the town Luffy had saved from Buggy and also the town to which Anjali and Gin were assigned.

Anjali was a seaman recruit… or a sea- _girl_ recruit to be more accurate.

Gin had started out as the same but he had shortly been promoted to the rank of ensign. He had been training hard to get into the Grand Line.

The results of his 2-ish weeks of training were beginning to show. He was definitely stronger than he had been and he had already been pretty strong… for East Blue anyway.

Arekuso was trying to move across the island incognito and then buy a dinghy or something of the sort and get away in it, hopefully losing Lenon, however unlikely that occurrence was.

He made an elementary mistake. In his deep thought, he wasn't looking where he was going. He crashed into a marine and fell down.

The marine lent him a hand but frowned when he saw his face.

Arekuso had almost gotten away when the marine exclaimed, "You're the Knifer Arekuso!"

Arekuso cursed and spun around, both knifes already out.

He had to silence the marine.

Gin (the marine) took out his tonfas, ready for the fight.

Arekuso's knifes both had a hole for a grip on their handles. He put his pinky finger through the holes on the handle, letting the knife hang down off his pinky. He then proceeded to spin his knifes round and round on his pinkies.

He spun them so fast that they looked like they were a small circular shield.

A very sharp one.

Arekuso lunged at Gin, almost faster than Gin could see, almost being the operative word.

Gin moved out of the way and brought up his right Tonfa. The metal ball on the end of the stick of the Tonfa took the blows from Arekuso's knifes.

Gin swung the other Tonfa to hit Arekuso's head but one knife went up to block it. Arekuso was so strong that one of his knifes managed to hold both of Gin's tonfas at an arm's length.

Gin grit his teeth.

"I won't lose to an imbecile like you!" Gin screamed, his muscles bulging as he managed to overpower Arekuso's knife and strike him in the chest with a tonfa.

Arekuso retreated a few steps gasping for breath before approaching Gin again, this time with knifes flashing.

Gin deflected the many knife strikes with his tonfas but he knew he was falling behind. Arekuso's speed and skill with his knifes was greater than anything Gin had ever seen. Arekuso's knifes seemed to come from all directions and each strike packed a huge punch.

Despite the many cuts delivered to him by Arekuso, Gin stayed strong, trying to ignore the pain that threatened to overcome him.

'If I want to go to the Grand Line, I can't succumb to injuries that would slow down a regular man! I can't be regular!' thought Gin.

He waited for the moment to strike and hit Arekuso with all of his strength in the stomach, sending him flying backwards and coughing up blood.

Arekuso stood up unsteadily but it was clear from his clumsy attacks that he had been hurt badly.

Now that Arekuso had been successfully slowed down, Gin was basically toying with him, prolonging the fight just for laughs.

"Twinkle Twinkle little Arekuso. How I wonder when you'll give up. Up above the sky so high, Arekuso's diaper is still not dry. Twinkle Twinkle little Arekuso, How I wonder when you'll give up." Sang Gin as he knocked back all of Arekuso's slow and weakened strikes.

Suddenly a loud buzzing filled the ears of Gin and Arekuso.

Arekuso recognizing the sound, paled considerably. Out of the sky, a large animal that looked like a cross between a beatle and a human wearing a stretched out black coat descended down onto the two.

As the creature landed, Gin realised that the white coat was a marine coat. The creature started thinning a bit and turned into a regular human, wearing a marine coat and a badge that identified him as Chief Commodore Lenon the Beatle.

Gin hit Arekuso one final time, hard on the head with his tonfa, finally knocking him out and saluted to the higher ranking marine.

"Hello Chief Commodore."

*** **Later, Marine base, Orange town**

"You single-handedly took down Knifer Arekuso, a pirate I have been chasing for over 3 years… and you're an East Blue marine!" said Lenon unbelievingly.

"Yup, that about sums it up."

Lenon phoned marienford HQ and reported Gin's capture of Arekuso.

He put the den den mushi receiver down and turned to Gin.

"You can pick up the bounty from Loguetown… Captain Gin."

 **Thanks for reading**


	18. Operation Baroque Works

**An: I hope you enjoy. Please review, fav, follow and whatever else.**

*** **Marineford courtroom**

The extremely orthodox looking ancient judge spoke to the crowd that had gathered for the high profile trial that was going on.

"Let the court acknowledge the defendant Anthony Johnston and the prosecution, Alistair Machli, the head of the Epithet Department."

The even ancient-er court scribe nodded his shrivelled up head that looked rather like a raisin.

"The defendant is charged with sabotage against the honourable Epithet Department in the form of continuous repetition of a horrible epithet, namely: Foo Foo Cuddly Poo."

Several of the jury looked suitably disgusted with the man in display.

"If the defendant is charged, the crime will be considered class 2, acts of high treason as it should be, and the only thing worse is murder."

"Aye!" the crowd shouted, in Marineford, epithets were regarded with a great deal of respect.

Alistair stood up.

"I, the awestriking head of the great and powerful all-knowing Epithet Department hereby charge Anthony Johnston to sabotage against the previously mentioned great and powerful all-knowing Epithet Department!"

Johnston burst into tears

*** **Marine holding cell**

Black Bat Langstrom was being held in a holding cell in Marineford, waiting to be shipped off to Impel Down.

They had taken away his suit and handcuffed him with Kairoseki nullifying his devil fruit powers and weakening him.

He was still going to escape. Langstrom got up to his feet unsteadily. They had let him stay in the black jumpsuit he was wearing underneath after checking it of course, however the people who checked the clothing of prisoners were nowhere near smart enough to actually find any of Langstrom's weapons.

As it was, Langstrom had been captured at a very inopportune time. He had just found somebody who was willing to teach him Haki.

Dark King Silvers Rayliegh was awaiting his arrival.

*** **Garp's dog-marine-base**

"9999, 10000!" said Garp, sitting on top of Coby's back as he had done just months back for Luffy.

Coby had been training incredibly hard for the last couple of weeks. He had already inadvertently unlocked his armament Haki, while trying to lift the inhuman weights that Garp was trying to force him to.

Garp took his time getting off of Coby.

The results of his intense training was obvious on his body. He had grown taller and his muscles were starting to actually show.

"20 minute break." Said Garp shortly.

Coby walked into the forest near Garp's base that he like to roam around in. He was getting stronger than he had been but not as fast as he wanted to.

He spotted a weird cone-shaped grey fruit with a swirly pattern.

It was a devil fruit.

Coby scaled the tree with ease, another result of his training and picked the fruit.

He ate it.

*** **2 days later**

Coby's devil fruit had been the tornu-tornu no mi, the tornado logia fruit.

He was already using his devil fruit halfway decently. It was one of the best devil fruits.

He could turn his arms into tornados and point them at other people, sucking them up, blowing them away and just plain overpowering them.

He was also trying to learn to turn into a huge tornado.

Obviously he also had the regular Logia powers like being intangible to non-Haki attacks and being able to dissipate into his element.

*** **Smoker's office, Loguetown**

Luffy entered Smoker's office at half past four almost an hour and a half after he was supposed to.

It probably didn't help his case, that his chocolate body had expanded to accommodate all of the extra food he'd spent the time eating.

Smoker had formed a tic over his eye.

"Goddamnit Luffy! Why don't you ever arrive on time!" said Smoker exasperatedly.

Luffy waved it away airily and spoke.

"So what was the 'undercover mission' that you were talking about?"

"HQ is investigating an organisation called 'Baroque Works'. It is affiliated with the Shichibukai Crocodile so they've left it alone so far. However there are rumours that the organisation plans to overthrow the Arabasta government and take over. HQ wants to find out whether that's true or not but if it isn't then they don't want to be caught breaking the terms of their contract. That's why we are going to be pretending to be pirates, the Cowboy Hat pirates to be exact, you'll have to cover up your strawhat with a cowboy-hat. We'll both get bounties of 45 million each. The point of this mission is to scout and take action only if Crocodile is breaking the contract in any way. If he isn't then we get out of there. We were chosen because we were the highest ranked marines near the kingdom of Arabasta. Also, another marine will also be joining us, a captain from Orange Town called Gin."

"Gin! I know him! I recruited him at the Baratie."

"Good, he will be accompanying us and will get a bounty of 20 million. By the way, I've been promoted to Chief Commodore for my takeout of Earthbender Toph."

"Good for you, Smokey!"

*** **2 years ago, Alisma Island, home of the bandit Chin, (Sabo Chapter)**

Sabo and his first mate newly re-epithet-ed 'Operator Overlord' Pacha had just landed on their first island after their long sail to Marineford.

It was an island known as Alisma. They were there mainly to restock but Sabo was also looking for people to join his crew.

They docked the ship at the biggest harbour. Sabo was okay at navigating but they desperately needed someone more competent than Sabo.

While Sabo went about asking people whether they wanted to join his crew, Pacha bought supplies, specifically a lot of tinned food, to make up for the lack of a cook.

It was later that day that both returned to their ship.

Sabo sighed disappointedly.

"Nobody joined us. We'll stay here tomorrow as well."

"Okey Dokey."

*** **Elsewhere on the island, that night**

Chin was a lone bandit. He was huge, 10 feet tall and almost as wide. He wore shorts and a torn up blue t-shirt. He had two huge cricket bats. He had curly black hair and huge flaring nostrils.

Overall he looked like brainless brawn. Strength without smart and that used to be true. He used to be about as smart as a Neanderthal…until he ate the intel-intel no mi.

The intel-intel no mi was the paramecia intelligence fruit, basically making the user a… intelligent person.

He had a bounty of 109 million beli already.

Despite his looks, Chin was probably the best strategist in the world. He was probably best at all academic subjects, his insight on topics was stellar, and he was simply the most intelligent man on earth.

Nobody knew that. Chin kept it a secret.

*** **Sabo's ship**

Chin approached Sabo's ship cautiously. He knew who Sabo was, he would be wary of the 139 million beli man but he was confident he could take him…after all he knew the rare skill of haki, a fact he hadn't revealed to the marines.

He picked the lock on the door and entered the inside of the ship.

Suddenly he felt Sabo enter the room behind him, with his observation haki.

Chin spun around, both bats ready to strike to come to a surprising halt, when he saw that Sabo wasn't holding a weapon and was grinning from ear to ear.

"Join my crew!"

"What the hell?"

*** **30 minutes later**

Chin swung at Sabo, with his armament coated cricket bat for the 148th time. This time, Sabo chose to flip out of the way and send an uppercut back at Chin. The punch was useless as it slammed against the other bat, which Chin had brought up in defence.

Chin had been much surprised to see that Sabo already knew Haki.

In his surprise, Sabo managed to get 3 punches in, one to his stomach, one to his knee and one to his crotch…ow.

Chin almost doubled up but managed to stay on his feet.

"Gear Second!" Sabo moved incredibly fast, his punches were barely being blocked.

Finally one strike to Chin's face sent him flying into the wall.

Sabo helped him up.

"Join my crew."

 **Thanks for reading.**


	19. Into the Grand Line

**An: I hope you enjoy this chapter and** _ **somehow**_ **I still don't own One Piece and my legal team had advised me not to pretend to own One Piece otherwise I'll risk being sued. :-(**

*** **Approaching the reverse mountain**

Smoker, Tashigi and Gin had joined Luffy and his crew on the Going Merry rather than taking their own ship.

They had to cover Merry's figurehead sheep with a black cardboard cowboy hat that somewhat resembled the _brown_ cowboy hat that Luffy was wearing over his straw-hat. He was called Cowboy-Hat Lucy.

Smoker had dyed his hair black and had been epithet-ed, Black-Cigar Steamer. His devil fruit was being called the stee-stee no mi, the steam logia fruit, although Luffy thought it was ridiculous that anybody would actually think that was a real devil fruit. ( **An: 4kids jibe** )

Gin had dyed his hair pink and shaved the moustache he'd been growing. He was also wearing his old pirate clothes, rather than the marine costume he had become accustomed to. He was called the Demon Tonfa Tonic. ( **An: Gin and Tonic** )

For whatever reason, despite Smoker being the commanding officer on the mission, Luffy was the captain of the crew, on Smoker's request.

They had decided to take the reverse mountain rather than the crossing the calm belt because it was faster and would lead them directly to Arabasta within 4-5 islands.

Smoker had explained the concept of a log pose to Nami, and they had 2 logs on hand for their voyage.

"This is it. I'm finally returning to the Grand Line as a full Commodore with his own crew." Said Luffy taking a deep long breath.

Zoro pulled out a barrel of sake to celebrate.

Instead of opening the barrel, Luffy put his foot on the barrel.

"To become the Fleet Admiral!"

The rest of the crew understood what he was doing.

Zoro went first.

"To be the greatest swordsman!"

"Find all Blue!"

"Map the world!"

"Be a brave warrior of the sea!"

Kira went next. "Be the best sniper!"

Ansel. "Become a _real_ doctor!"

Tanaka. "Be the right hand man of the Fleet Admiral!"

Jacob. "Never have to cook again!"

Sanji kicked him.

John. "Help Luffy become the Fleet Admiral!"

"You copied me!" Tanaka accused.

Gin hesitantly put his foot on the barrel.

"Take on the Grand Line!"

Looking extremely inspired, Tashigi went.

"To return all of the Meito to honourable swordsmen!"

Everyone looked at the last person, Smoker who stood there.

"Your turn, Smoker sir." Tashigi said in a very loud stage whisper.

"Hell no!"

*** **Later**

Their ship wooshed over the top of the mountain and started its swift journey down.

They almost hurtled into what looked like a huge blue wall. Luffy sent a huge chocolate jet at the wall, pushing it back…hard.

The wall was revealed to be a huge whale and not a wall.

Luffy leapt off of the ship and delivered a devastating blow to the whale sending it crashing into the red line.

An old man with a flowery t-shirt stood at the edge of a tiny close by island.

"Here for your customary spar, Luffy?" said the Flower-man

In response Luffy only grinned and the whale pulled itself out of the rock and threw itself at Luffy.

Luffy's crew noticed a badly scrawled seagull wearing a strawhat drawn on the Whale's head as well as the many scars that he held.

"Guys, meet Laboon." Said Luffy.

Laboon had almost hit Luffy when he was brought to a standstill by a harpoon striking his side.

Mr.9 and Ms Wednesday stood on a nearby floating rock in all of their glory.

The harpoon was in Mr 9's hand.

The line of the harpoon was abruptly cut as Mr 9 faced a furious Luffy's fist.

Luffy's fist knocked him to the ground, breaking 4 ribs and nearly sending him unconscious.

Ms Wednesday (Vivi) realised the great power difference between herself and the stranger in the straw hat. Instead of trying to fight, she asked/begged Luffy to take her to Whiskey Peak.

Luffy defended his friends with his life, but he wasn't unkind, he went over to Smoker and consulted him.

"Who are you two guys? Asked Luffy suspiciously, returning from his chat with Smoker.

"Ms Wednesday."

Luffy felt Smoker tense up with his Observation Haki.

"What are you doing here?"

"Hunting food for our town."

Luffy turned up his conqueror's Haki and stared at Ms Wednesday.

"Laboon is _not_ food." Said Luffy, emphasizing the word, not.

*** **Later**

After consultation with Smoker, Luffy decided to give Ms Wednesday and his now unconscious partner, Mr 9 a lift to Whiskey Peak.

Smoker said that he suspected the 2 were a part of Baroque works and might lead them to a base of the organisations'.

*** **Later, on Going Merry, on the way to Whiskey Peak**

"So who are you guys anyway?" asked Ms Wednesday casually.

"Pirates." Replied Luffy just about managing to keep his voice level.

"I know that." Said Ms Wednesday pompously.

"I mean who _exactly_."

"Cowboy Hat Lucy, bounty of 45 million." Said Luffy offering his hand.

Ms Wednesday was unable to hide the shock on her face.

*** **Later**

"There's 110 million beli in bounties coming to Whiskey Peak. Use the flytrap method." Ms Wednesday whispered into her baby den-den mushi.

Luffy listened in on her conversation, understanding what exactly Whiskey Peak was.

It was most likely a bounty hunter town that was somehow affiliated with Baroque works.

Luffy walked into the room just as Ms Wednesday re-concealed her den-den mushi.

"Hey."

"H-Hi Lucy."

*** **Whiskey Peak, later**

Luffy and his troop of undercover marines were welcomed at Whiskey Peak.

Luffy had already informed Smoker, Gin and his crew about what Whiskey Peak was and what they would be attempting.

They had agreed to pretend to be taken in by the fly-trap and then search the premises of Whiskey Peak for any information.

The mayor of the town, Mr 8 welcomed Luffy's crew and took them to the huge bar.

Luffy ate 521 plates of food and then fell asleep.

Zoro drank 53 bottles of sake and fell asleep, apparently drunk.

Nami drank 54 bottles in a 100,000 beli drinking contest and fell asleep, also apparently drunk.

Sanji wooed 332 girls and then ate and fell asleep contented.

Tanaka drank 110 litres of tea and then fell asleep.

Kira and Usopp told stories (fake in Usopp's case) till they too fell asleep.

Smoker smoked every single cigarette in Whiskey Peak… all 58773 of them before falling asleep behind a huge puff of smoke.

Gin drunk gin till he fell asleep to.

Ansel,Jacob and John just sat by the den-den radio till they fell asleep.

*** **Outside, that night, Whiskey Peak**

"Honestly Mr 8, did we have to use the Fly-trap, couldn't we have just taken them out straight away!" said Ms Monday, sounding annoyed.

Mr 8 just handed her 3 bounty posters.

Cowboy Hat Lucy – 45 million beli.

Black Cigar Steamer – 45 million beli.

Demon Tonfa Tonic – 20 million beli.

Ms Monday's jaw dropped.

"Looks can be deceiving."

"Yes they can be." Said a voice from the top of a nearby building.

Mr 8 and Ms Monday looked at the two figures.

Lieutenant Roronoa Zoro and Lieutenant Kira.

Zoro had all 3 Swords out, one in his mouth as customary for his 3 sword style.

In either hand, Kira had an old machine gun model, Mx-1400.

"What were those bloody lookouts doing!" grumbled Ms Monday.

"Oh, they were lookouts, no wonder they tried to attack us." Kira commented dryly.

"You took out all 7!"

"Of course, they were no big deal." Said Zoro.

The millions attacked them, all 153 of them.

Zoro started cutting down all of the million sin his path as Kira didn't even bother loading his gun.

Kira just knocked out any billions who came close with the butt of his gun.

A million popped up with a handgun, a model, Px-1100. ( **An: for all of the guns that I 'created' – handguns and pistols will be 'px' models. Machine guns will be 'mx' models. Rifles will be 'rx' models. The higher the number after the 2 letters, the better the gun.** )

He shot at Kira, who deflected the bullets with the butt of his gun, his reaction time stellar.

Just as he was about to get serious and start shooting, all of the millions fell to the floor, foaming at the mouth, with their eyes rolled up into their head.

"Captain Luffy?"

 **Thanks for reading chapter 19.**

 **Px-5 out.**


	20. Mr 5 and Ms Kilo

**An: I hope you enjoy this chapter. If you're also a reader of the Wizarding Bat, I will be updating that story shortly too. Thank you WildMan and 'Guest' for the reviews.**

*** **Orange Town, East Blue**

Anjali was training hard.

Obviously, nowhere near as hard as say, Coby was under Garp but she was training with the new Lieutenant Commander assigned to the base, Ganpo.

Ganpo was relatively skilled with one sword style and was training her in fitness and swordsmanship. She too had gotten stronger and had been promoted to Lieutenant and was Ganpo's assistant.

In some ways she missed being on Luffy's crew but truth be told she had been there for a very short period of time so she didn't think about it much except for the occasional bout of short-term nostalgia.

On her daily morning jog through the forest, Anjali noticed a blue coloured coconut that was at least twice as large as the average coconut.

Anjali scaled the tree and ate the fruit.

The fruit had turned out to be a devil fruit, the tita-tita no mi, mythical Zoan… The Titan fruit.

She could turn into a 15 foot tall incredibly strong monster with horns.

"So Cool!"

*** **Marine Holding Cells**

Without even unshackling his handcuffs, Black Bat Langstrom had beaten all of the guards around the cells.

Alaric had been pretty lucky to catch him at a bad time. After the huge battle he had been through, it had been a much harder fight than it would have been otherwise.

He admitted to himself that he might still have lost at full strength but he would have given Alaric a run for his money.

Presently, Langstrom picked up the key on the desk and unshackled his sea-stone handcuffs, feeling his power come flooding back.

He turned into his Human-Beast form, using his Bat-Bat fruit Model: Vampire. He was as big as a human, with his muscles remaining but bat-wings growing out of his back and him growing black hair all over his body… However the scariest part about his transformation were the fangs of the Vampire Bat that were dangerous enough on a regular bat but were at least 9 times larger on Langstrom's face. The bat-ears on Langstrom's head twitched.

He did still have the sense of sight but he also had the sonar locationing power that bats did.

He flew straight at the flimsy wooden door that stored the possessions of the prisoners.

The door burst open as he flew headfirst into it.

He looked around the cluttered room and found what he had looking for.

A huge tomb shaped box with a button on it.

The case for his bat-suit.

*** **Several days later**

Black Bat Langstrom landed on the island of Fuze, where he was supposed to meet Rayliegh.

His escape and subsequent defeat of the weakling Rear Admiral Sanshoo had increased his bounty to 248 million beli.

A voice from behind surprised Langstrom.

He spun around, quickly, transforming into his Human-Beast form, his fangs bared, ready to fight.

Dark King Silvers Rayliegh smiled at him.

"You interest me _a lot_ , Gunther D Langstrom…"

*** **Whiskey Peak**

Luffy stepped out of the shadows, surprising the few frontier agents whom he had left awake, mainly to gather information.

Mr 9 and Mr 8 took a step back, Ms Wednesday and Ms Monday also gulped and took a step back.

Luffy slowly unsheathed his sword and walked up to Ms Wednesday, before carefully putting the sword to her throat.

At this, Mr 8 seemed to gather his wits.

"Igarappapa!" he roared. He revealed guns in his hair, Mx-1000 Kira idly noted, and started shooting at Luffy.

All of the bullets passed right through Luffy, luckily the trajectory that Mr 8 had used (on purpose) mean that after the bullets passed through Luffy they would continue on and not hit Ms Wednesday, which they didn't.

Mr 8's eyes went wide.

"A devil fruit!"

"Choco Choco no mi." said Luffy before clearing his voice, preparing for the interrogation, probably the skill he was worst at.

Before he could start, Mr 8 gasped in even more fear than he had shown Luffy.

"Mr 5! W-W-We can explain our failure." Ms Wednesday stuttered.

"Tch, you think we're here to supervise your mission, you think officer agents like us would bother?" said Mr 5.

"We're here…because somebody knows something…"

Mr 8 and Ms Wednesday seemed to pale even further.

"Very Descriptive." Said Luffy dryly.

Behind Luffy, Smoker and Gin strolled out of the bar they had been occupying.

Mr 5 ignored them.

"Ms Wednesday and Mr 8… or should I say Princess Vivi of the Arabasta kingdom and Igaram of the Arabasta royal guard!"

Smoker just about managed to hide the surprise from his face, Vivi was the missing princess.

Igaram went for another Igarappapa but they didn't affect Mr 5.

"I ate the bomu bomu no mi. I am a bomb-man, explosive bullets can't hurt me!"

He then flicked a booger at Igaram, the booger exploded on contact with Igaram's head sending him flying into the wall.

As he was about to finish off Igaram, and Vivi was preparing to intervene in desperation, Luffy moved swiftly in front of Igaram and unsheathed his sword, deflecting Mr 5's next booger away towards an unoccupied building.

"Chocolate Eruption."

The chocolate jet knocked Mr 5 out hot.

Ms Kilo (I don't remember her day so I'll just call her by her devil fruit) gulped and turned her mass to 1 kg.

"I-I ate the kilo kilo no mi, I can change my weight from 1 kilo to 10,000 kilos!"

She jumped high into the air before turning her weight to 10,000 kilos and coming crashing down onto Luffy.

Luffy raised one armament-ed fist that Ms Kilo fell onto.

"Oww." Said Ms Kilo before blacking out with blood flowing freely out of her chest, where her ribs had cracked from Luffy's fist.

Luffy had used Ms Kilo's own velocity to beat her.

 **Thanks for reading. I am really busy right now, so updates will be extremely sporadic. I hope you enjoyed.**

 **Px5 out.**


	21. Langstrom vs Rayleigh

**An: I hope you enjoy.**

*** **Fuze Island**

Rayleigh and Langstrom stood opposite each other.

"I want to assess your strength, before I agree to train you." Said Rayleigh.

Langstrom was wearing his basic bat-suit. It was black, Level 9000 bulletproof. It was fairly light and flexible and was shock-proof and electric-proof as well. The fabric was such that it could expand to fit him in his human-beast form as well.

To his left side of his hips, he had attached a beautiful sea-stone longsword that as subtly curved, with a dangerous looking sharp blade.

To the right side of his hips, he had a jet black pistol.

They faced each other for a few seconds.

"…Uh, should I start?"

"3, 2, 1…" counted down Rayliegh.

At 1, both men sprung into the air.

Rayleigh drew his katana, already coated with armament Haki and went for a direct strike across Langstrom's chest. The blade was parried by Langstrom's sword.

The armament was strong but not quite strong enough to shatter the sea-stone though it did seem to come close, making a slight creaking sound on contact with Rayleigh's sword.

The shockwave from the hit was huge. It sent both Rayleigh and Langstrom flying.

Rayleigh managed to land on his feet more or less, 1 or 2 feet behind where the two had clashed. Langstrom on the other hand, flew 20 feet or so before crashing into the ground.

By the time that Langstrom had picked himself up and off the ground, Rayleigh was already there, his sword coming down on Langstrom's head.

Langstrom hastily drew his sword and blocked the strike, barely managing to stay on his feet.

Langstrom backed up just a bit before coming back into the fight with a huge flurry of strikes. Several high blows, mixed with a few middle and low blows were all thrown into the mix, as Langstorm went all out with his sword, trying to gain some kind of advantage.

Rayleigh easily managed to dodge and evade all of Langstrom's strikes using his observation Haki.

Langstrom pulled his last card. He transformed into his human-beast form, became about a third bigger and grew the dreaded fangs.

He jumped at Rayleigh again, this time not using the longsword as conventionally but instead using it in conjunction with his fangs.

He swung with both his fangs and his sword. Both of his fangs aimed for Rayleigh's forehead, while his sword went much lower to Rayleigh's stomach. Rayleigh's sword came down, still haki-ed and struck against Langstrom's sword. Rayleigh just coated his neck with haki and Langstrom's fangs bounced off.

Fast as lightning, after parrying Langstrom's longsword, Rayleigh went for an upward strike, going up from Langstrom's stomach to his chest. The sword made a shallow cut, before being parried so hard that it fell out of Rayleigh's hand.

Despite his injury Langstrom smiled triumphantly.

Rayleigh smirked.

"The worst thing to do…" Rayleigh started as he let loose a burst of conqueror's haki.

"…is to let your guard down!" Rayleigh finished.

While Langstrom was shaken by the Conqueror's Haki, Rayleigh backflipped to where his sword lay, picked it up, and swung at Langstrom.

Despite Langstrom's lightning quick reflexes and his strong sword, he couldn't do anything except try to swerve out of the way of the hit, his attempt at which was unsuccessful.

Rayleigh spun his sword around and smashed the butt of his sword into Langstrom's solar plexus.

Langstrom collapsed to the ground, making choking noises.

"Good job, you lasted 32 minutes!"

"Stop being sarcastic!"

"I'm not."

*** **Marine Headquarters**

"Sir, Frontier Admiral X Drake has escaped!" ( **An: If you don't remember what rank Frontier Admiral is, go back to chapter 5** ).

Akainu looked grim.

"We need to catch him. Send a Chief Admiral to capture him."

The Frontier Admiral who had come to inform Akainu winced.

"We already sent a Chief Admiral. He was killed…"

"Send a stronger one!"

"We sent the strongest."

There was a lingering silence. Akainu for whatever reason seemed agitated.

"Whoever catches Drake will be automatically promoted to Chief Admiral."

*** **Whiskey Peak**

Miss Valentine's-Day and Mr 5 were both beaten.

Vivi and Igaram were awestruck.

They stood there with their mouth open.

Luffy turned to them.

"What do you know about Baroque Works? Why did you infiltrate Baroque Works? Why did I repeat 'Baroque Works' instead of using the pronoun 'it'?"

"…I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

Vivi gestured wildly.

"He'll kill you!"

"Crocodile?" asked Luffy, trying to confirm his knowledge.

Vivi put her hands over her mouth and gasped.

"H-How do you know that!?"

"Don't worry, I can handle Crocodile. What is he up to?"

Vivi's face turned bitter.

"He is planning a revolution in my country Arabasta. He wants to rule Arabasta."

Luffy smirked.

"If that's really his plan, then he's breaking the World Government's rules. You and Igaram can come with me to Arabasta. We'll sort this out in the name of justice!"

*** **Later**

Igaram had initially suggested a crackpot idea, where he set himself up as a red herring and went straight to Arabasta but Luffy had shot down that idea immediately.

"You're coming with us." Luffy said firmly.

*** **Later, just as they were setting off**

"Raise the sails, Move towards starboard!" Nami yelled.

"You might want to keep the sails open."

"…Actually, ya you're right. Thanks!" said Nami.

"Welcome."

After a moment, Nami slowly turned around.

"Did you say that, Luffy?"

"Nah, the woman over there did." Said Luffy.

Nami spun around, her eyes searching for 'the woman over there.'

Luffy also lazily looked at the woman.

Something about her was extremely familiar.

Vivi shrieked.

"M-M-Ms A-A-All Sunday!"

"Whose partner is she?"

"Crocodile's."

That made Luffy remember.

Aokiji seemed to have it in for her. He told Luffy to kill her on sight but never wanted to explain why Robin should die.

There was a shady story about her destroying 8 battleships or something like that but Luffy had looked into it and there were no battleships destroyed the month that Robin got her bounty.

"Nico Robin…" he said, disbelievingly.

Robin stiffened.

***  
 **Thanks for reading this incredibly short chapter. I hope I can write longer ones, but I'm pushing this one out now.**


	22. Mr 3, Mr 5 and their GFs vs Marines

**An: I hope you enjoy.**

*** **On the ship**

"Nico Robin…" said Luffy disbelievingly.

Robin stiffened, all previous traces of humour gone from her face.

Luffy gulped. He hadn't expected to encounter her this soon.

Smoker walked out of his cabin.

"What's going on, Luffy?"

"Nico Robin…" Luffy repeated.

Unlike Luffy, Smoker was quick to act. He transformed into smoke and flew at Nico Robin, surrounding her with his smoke and thus disabling her movement.

Despite her struggling, Robin wasn't able to escape the hold of the experienced Chief Commodore.

"W-W-Why..." Robin questioned.

Gin, who had just strolled onto the deck spoke.

"We're marines."

Robin's face went deathly pale. Acute terror settled in on her face.

Her dream was over. She was going to die.

In the rush of a soru, Luffy was next to Smoker, his fist blackened with armament Haki. He swung at Smoker, hurling his smoky form off Robin and crashing into the railing.

Robin took the chance to dive off the ship, onto the back of a giant turtle which carried her away.

Smoker pulled himself out of the broken railing and scowled at Luffy.

"What the hell, Luffy?!"

"Why does she have that bounty…" asked Luffy quietly.

Smoker rolled his eyes.

"She took down 8 battleships."

"No she didn't…"

*** **Later**

"Island in sight!" Zoro yelled out from the crow's nest.

Despite having an eternal pose to Arabasta, they were following the log to see whether they could find any suspicious activity on the way.

They landed on the island that Zoro had spotted.

"Little Garden." Read out Smoker from his tourist guide.

"There's no information on it." Said Smoker annoyed.

Suddenly, a huge dinosaur came running out of the jungle.

Luffy sent a chocolate eruption at the dinosaur, sending him tumbling backwards and then geppo-jumped up and slashed the dinosaur's neck with his sword.

"I caught us some food!" grinned Luffy.

Usopp came out from behind the rock that he'd been hiding behind.

"I, the great ensign Usopp, claim this dinosaur carcass!"

"Uh, you do know that all of us watched Luffy take it down, right?"

While Usopp was pouting, Luffy decided to go on an adventure.

Smoker sighed and pulled Gin along with him and Luffy. Vivi decided to go with them too.

Tanaka, John, Kira, Ansel and the recently recovered Jacob decided to explore the island for suspicious activity like they were supposed to.

Zoro and Sanji decided to see which of them could catch a bigger dinosaur.

Nami and Usopp decided to stay and guard the ship along with Tashigi.

*** **Later**

Luffy frowned.

"There are 4 agents on this island. The Mr 5 duo and 2 more."

Vivi gasped.

Smoker raised an eyebrow.

"Where are they?"

Luffy's frown deepened.

"Heading for the ship."

"Intercept?" asked Gin

"Intercept." Confirmed Smoker.

*** **Later, in front of the Merry**

Mr 3, Mr 5 and their girlfriends were almost onto the ship, when Luffy, Smoker and Gin intercepted them.

Vivi stood in a corner and shook in fear.

"M-Mr 3!" she gasped.

Mr 3 grinned nastily.

"Ms Wednesday, how nice to see you." Said Mr 3 sarcastically.

"Huh? I thought you guys wanted her dead…" said Luffy, puzzled as usual, the nuances of sarcasm going far above his head.

Smoker and Gin facepalmed.

"You're the pirates that escaped up before!" said Mr 5.

"We won't let you get away this time!" said Ms Kilo (forgot her name again).

Ms Kilo jumped into the air and lightened herself before turning her weight to 10,000 and fell on Luffy.

Luffy didn't even bother moving. Gin intercepted with his Tonfa, smashing it into her stomach, causing severe internal damage because of the velocity that she was travelling at.

Ms Kilo slumped to the ground, and tried to get up but her head was smashed into the ground by Smoker's sea-stone jitte.

Mr 5 and Mr 3 went at it together.

Mr 5 sent several exploding boogers then breathed into his gun and shot explosions at the 3 marines.

Smoker and Luffy ignored the explosions, their logia fruits protecting them from harm.

Gin deflected the boogers away from himself. Most of them hit the ground near him, exploding upon impact.

Luffy moved quickly, he got his sword out and struck through Mr 3's stomach in less than 2 seconds.

Mr 3 made a slight gurgling noise before collapsing to the ground too.

Smoker smashed his Jitte into Mr 5's head, knocking him out as well.

"1 all." Said Gin, humorously.

*** **Fuze Island**

"The first type of Haki is armament." Said Rayleigh patiently.

Langstrom nodded.

"Try to hit me, with all you've got." Said Rayleigh.

Langstrom raised an eyebrow but complied.

He put on his glove and sent a blow smashing into Rayleigh's stomach. It would have caused severe internal damage, maybe death to a normal person, but Rayleigh was not normal.

He coated his stomach with armament, causing a small shockwave and sending Langstrom flying away.

"This is armament haki."

*** **Marine HQ**

This was the day.

The big day.

It had been exactly one week since his crewmate Drake had revealed his true colours and betray the world government. Only Sakazuki knew of his and Drake's involvement in the Rebellion and he was too scared of his knowledge to reveal anything.

Vice Admiral Doomsday Vein was preparing to escape. He knew that Sakazuki was having him traced by CP9 as well as unit Magma, a unit that he had formed himself.

Vein walked to the gate of HQ, slowly, not panicking at all, despite knowing the huge danger that he was placing himself in.

A stout looking guy in a black suit that he knew to be Assassin Jabra of CP9 stepped forward.

"You are not allowed to leave HQ, sir." Jabra said, barely respectful enough to pass off as a Guard.

Vein ignored him and tried to walk past but Jabra wouldn't budge.

Vein smirked. Quick as a flash, he withdrew several throwing knives and flung them, with deadly accuracy at Jabra.

"Tekkai!" Jabra yelled, smirking himself, expecting the knives to not injure him at all.

He was wrong. The armament coated knifes tore through his tekkai like a knife through butter, 4 distinct holes in his chest were visible as he slumped to the ground.

In the blink of several well-practised sorus, he had 7 CP9 men in front of him.

One person stepped forward, Vein identified him as Rob Lucci of CP9.

Without speaking, Lucci unleashed a devastating blast of Rokuogan.

Vein transformed into his mythical zoan form. He turned at least 30 feet tall and dark grey, several sharop bone-like spikes sticking out of his back. His arms were huge and hulking and his eyes were glowing red. ( **An: Doomsday will have the same powers that he does in Batman vs Superman** )

The Rokuogan smashed Vein right in the chest but Vein didn't budge even a single millimetre.

Panting heavily, Lucci looked up, expecting to see a deeply weakened Vein, but instead saw the amused face of Doomsday.

All 7 of the CP9 members attacked, it was raining Rankyakus and Rokuogans but they didn't seem to be able to make a single mark on Vein.

Vein's eyes glowed a bright red, and huge beams of laser burst forth from his eyes, destroying the gate and killing 6 of the 7 CP9 members.

Despite their soru, Vein was too fast. Only Lucci was fast enough to completely escape the blast.

Lucci felt fear for the first time. The urge to run away, something that most strong people have had to deal with at some point or other, something that he had never had to experience because of his insane strength, flooded him. Lucci soru'd away as fast as he could, not looking back.

A deep voice sighed.

"And here I was thinking that CP9 could take you down…"

A lean man stepped out of the shadows and stepped in front of Vein. He was wearing a white suit with a short marine jacket. His raven coloured black hair was cut short and his features exuded a bored gaze.

Vein recognised him immediately.

"It was Vice Admiral Romulus, the leader of unit Magma.

Oh shit.

 **Thanks for reading. If you enjoy Harry Potter and/or Batman please check out my other fanfic, the Wizarding Bat.**

 **Px5 out.**


	23. Drum Island

**An: I hope you enjoy. Thanks for all 23 reviews, how many ever favs there are and how many ever follows there are.**

*** **Little Garden**

After defeating the agents, Luffy, Smoker and Gin came across a giant.

Smoker immediately tightened his hand around his Jitte.

The giant, Dory, noticed this and laughed uproariously.

"You've heard of my bounty, little marine!" he rumbled.

"Indeed, Dory, 100 million beli…" said Smoker.

"Don't bother trying to catch me, there's no way that you will, just relax!" said Dory.

After hearing a blast of a volcano, Dory got to his feet and left to fight another Giant, Brogy.

Usopp, who had met up with them had stars in his eyes.

"I want to be like them someday!"

"What, a giant?" asked Luffy, confused.

"No, a brave warrior of the sea."

*** **Later, after leaving the island**

Nami was incredibly pale and had a fever. At first she had tried to hide it, but Luffy had caught on.

Arabasta was a whole week away and they were trying to figure out where they could get medication from. Ansel was no help, saying that he was barely a trainee doctor, he had more experience in fighting.

On the way there, they were boarded by a crew of pirates, the Wapol Pirates or something like that.

"Marines… we are here to loot your ship! Give us all of your treasure immediately!" said the captain, an ugly looking guy.

Luffy, Smoker and Gin shared a sceptical look that basically said, 'Really?'

Upon their non-compliance, Wapol attacked.

Gin stood up.

"I'll deal with this."

He swung his tonfa and smashed it into Wapol's head, before he could move a muscle. Wapol went flying into his own ship.

He pulled himself out of the rubble and jumped back on the going merry.

This time he attacked with an open mouth.

Gin rolled his eyes. He began to swing his tonfs gathering speed. The tonfa smashed into Wapol's chest, missing his mouth, where Wapol was trying to get it.

There was a cracking sound and Wapol fell, easily beaten by the superior Gin.

They didn't have the area to arrest the whole crew so they anchored the ship and informed HQ to pick up the pirates.

They arrested Wapol and kept him in the makeshift prison cell on the Merry.

*** **Drum Island**

The marines approached the island, where they were greeted by a stout man, with a bitter expression on his face.

"Have you dumbasses _finally_ come to help us!?" he said, sounding hostile.

"Help you?" Luffy asked puzzled.

"We begged you guys for help when we were ransacked by the pirate, BlackBeard."

"Blackbeard… the ex-WhiteBeard pirate?" Smoker mused.

"That's the one."

"Anyway, we're looking for a doctor. Our navigator is sick!" Luffy interrupted.

"There is only one doctor in this country, and they call her a witch." Said the man glumly.

"What's your name?"

"Dalton."

"How do we find this witch-doctor, Dalton?" asked Luffy.

"She lives up on the top of that mountain." Dalton pointed.

"Unfortunately you can't get up there-"

Without listening to him, Luffy was already geppo-ing his way to the top of the mountain.

Smoker cursed and followed, his smoky body allowing him to speedily follow Luffy up the mountain.

Luffy came to a panting halt on the top of the mountain and stumbled into the castle there, his energy all spent on getting Nami here. He wasn't very accomplished with Geppo, like he was with Soru. It took a lot of energy for him to perform.

Smoker flew up the mountain and stood next to the exhausted Luffy.

Suddenly behind them came a voice.

"Can I help you marine-punks?"

*** **Later**

Luffy and Smoker were sitting in the room that Kureha had dubbed the waiting room. It had one small sofa. Luffy and Smoker were currently sharing the sofa, while Kureha and her unseen apprentice worked on Nami.

Kureka opened the door and walked out, a cute raindeer walked out after her.

Upon seeing Luffy and Smoker the raindeer shrieked and tried to hide behind Kureha's legs… the wrong way, so that most of his body could be seen.

"H-H-Humans!" the raindeer squeaked out.

Smoker's smoky eyebrows were raised while Luffy had stars in his eyes.

"A RAINDEER THAT CAN SPEAK! JOIN MY CREW!" Luffy yelled and started chasing after the raindeer.

Kureha smashed her foot into Luffy's face.

"Don't poach my apprentice, Marine!" she said.

Luffy pouted.

The raindeer had also stopped running.

"I want you to join my crew of marines." Luffy offered again, this time more polite and more soft.

"B-But I'm a talking reindeer. I'm a monster…"

"Yes you are."

The Reindeer hung his head in shame.

"… But so am I" said Luffy.

The Reindeer looked up in surprise.

"And I'm glad I'm a monster."

"Why?" asked the Reindeer.

"Because I'd rather be a monster who can protect my crew than a normal person who can't."

Chopper's eyes shone with excitement at the new idea.

"What's your name?"

"Tony Tony Chopper."

*** **Later**

"But-But…"

Initially, Chopper had refused to join, giving several reasons why he shouldn't join the marines.

Every single one of them was shot down by Luffy.

At this point, Chopper was seriously considering Luffy's offer.

After all, he couldn't become to best doctor or find a panacea without leaving Drum at some point, he knew that.

A huge crash drew Chopper out of his trance.

He sprinted out to see Luffy facing off against… Wapol.

Wapol appeared to be insulting Hiluluk's flag. Anger rose in Chopper's chest but before he could do anything, Luffy reacted.

"I may not be a pirate…" said Luffy softly.

With a single slash of his sword, Wapol fell to the floor, blood gushing out of his chest.

"… But I know what it means to fly a pirate flag and I will not let you desecrate the flag of a true pirate!" said Luffy, horrifying Smoker with his declaration.

Gin shrugged, after all he himself was an ex-pirate.

Chopper looked at luffy, admiration obvious in his eyes.

"I… will join the marines, Luffy-san!"

*** **Marine HQ**

Romulus didn't smile.

He didn't have any expression at all, unless you counted the look of extreme boredom on his face.

Vein went first, his huge hulking Doomsday form landing a huge punch that Romulus met with one haki encased-fist. The shock wave was big enough to knock both extremely strong fighters back a few feet.

Romulus capitalised on Vein's stumbling backwards, turning into his werewolf form (mythical zoan, were-were no mi) and leaping at the bigger Doomsday, his fangs biting into Vein's neck.

Vein gritted his teeth and pulled Romulus out of his neck and tried to crush him in his humungous fist.

Romulus burst out of his hand, weakened by the crushing force, but still alive, due to his armament haki.

*** **Akainu's office**

"A-Akainu-san, Vein has escaped… Romulus-san is severely wounded but alive."

Akainu shook with barely contained fear, something that was mistaken for anger by the guards.

"Whoever defeats Vein will be promoted to Vice Admiral. Also, put a 500 million bounty on his head." Said Akainu grimly.

 **Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed.**


	24. Data Island part 1 (Sabo Chapter)

**An: Sorry, I've been very busy this past week. I had a bunch of assignments to hand in. I've also been having a bit of writer's block when it comes to this story so here's a Sabo chapter to hold you over and inform you that I'm not dead. Thanks again for all of the reviews, favs and follows.**

*** **Unknown Island, 2 years ago**

The marine wearing a black coat stood out to everyone who saw him.

He held the rank of Rear Admiral. He was probably one of the strongest of his rank. The coat he wore had red lining with an overly stylised red marine seagull stitched onto the front pocket where it would be on a regular coat and justice written on the back, also in red stitching in the comic sans font (obviously in Japanese). He also actually had his arms in his sleeves like he was supposed to instead of outside like most high ranking marines wore it. Underneath, he wore a smart black suit with red trim. (I don't actually know how to describe a suit so just think Sanji's suit but twice as classy with red trim)

He along with his squadron were on the island, known as Data Island, because it was rumoured that the Top Hat pirates would be coming this way. Normally sending a mere Rear Admiral, even a really strong one, to fight a 300 million pirate would have been suicide however if Intel was to be believed, Top-Hat had been critically injured on the previous island, where he had fought and beaten Plot-Orc Erik.

Presently, the marine stood at the dock, with 20 of his own elite men, where the Top Hat Pirates were expected to show up in a few short minutes.

Right on Schedule, the ship of the Top Hat pirates showed up on the horizon. It was in terrible shape. It had chunks ripped out and some parts that looked like they had been on fire in the recent past.

The Rear Admiral pulled out 2 very long and thick needles with a wicked looking blade on the ends. They looked closer to throwing knifes than needles to be completely honest.

The ship of the Top Hat pirates docked, and 4 of the most bloody dead-man-walking-ey men walked out of it.

One was easily identified as Top Hat Sabo. His Top Hat was bent and ripped in several places. His signature blue almost gentlemanly coat was ripped up into pieces too.

In his mind, the Rear Admiral sighed. It had been a classy cloak.

The second, slightly harder to identify because of his lack of signature clothing, was Pacha, he was shirtless and bleeding freely from dozens of deep cuts and gashes across his torso.

The third was a hulking tall and wide man, wearing ripped up shorts and no shirt. He too was crisscrossed by dozens of injuries, some of them looking like they were from blunt weapons. The humongous cricket bat held by the man identified him as Chin the Batter.

The fourth however, not very hard to identify, was extremely worrying for the World Government. While the most injured of the lot, he was easily identified.

Roar of the sea, Scratch-man Apoo.

Sabo stepped in front of the three other men, frowning weakly, trying to calculate the odds of the fight.

"Who are you?" asked Sabo's weary voice.

"Rear Admiral Medical-Tailor Vesticus." Replied the Rear Admiral, now identified as Vesticus, clinically cleaning imaginary dirt off his needles.

Sabo took a long breath, closing his eyes to collect himself.

Vesticus' men looked to take advantage of the few seconds of recollection that Sabo was taking but Vesticus extended an arm, halting his men. At the very least, Top-Hat deserved a few seconds to prepare for the unexpected match.

Sabo's eyes opened, for the millisecond that Vesticus could see them, he could see the determination glinting in Sabo's blue eyes.

In the flash of a Jet Soru, Sabo had vanished from the eyes of the regular soldiers, and Vesticus could only watch as all of his soldiers fell in an instant before Sabo approached him, fist pulled back and ready to deliver a devastating punch to Vesticus' gut.

Vesticus, activating his own Soru moved out of Sabo's way enough to avoid the fist and attacked with his own needles.

With several quick stabbing motions, Vesticus backed off as the air-blades he had created hit Sabo, cutting through his skin, creating even more wounds on his body.

Vesticus winced as he saw the once stylish coat take even more damage. He promised himself to fix up the coat later after the fight was done. He coated his needles in armament before trying to rush Sabo.

Sabo bit his thumb, activating gear third and punched Vesticus with the fist of a giant.

Vesticus' needles pierced Sabo's giant fist, sending blood spurting everywhere out of his hand. Unfortunately for Vesticus the fist still connected with him and sent him flying into a tree and unconscious.

Sabo wobbled, dizzy from the blood loss from his now ruined hand, his vision darkened and he too fell to the ground. Sabo's crew grimly picked him up and carried him towards town.

He needed a doctor.

*** **Later**

Vesticus groaned as he returned to consciousness. In his last waking moments he has seen Sabo collapse of blood loss too.

Damn it.

Because of his Doctor's oath he had to find that bastard Sabo and fix him up.

With great pain he got to his feet and stumbled in the direction of town.

*** **Town**

Vesticus reached the town to hear a row going on.

Top Hat Sabo stood shakily in front of the local doctor, his crew behind him.

From the looks of it, Sabo seemed to be begging for treatment.

The doctor, a fat man that Vesticus disliked immensely, shook his head with beli eyes.

Probably looking to cash in Top Hat's bounty.

Vesticus shook his head in distaste as the town doctor lunged at the bloody and beaten Sabo.

Even in his half-dead state, Sabo knocked the town doctor down to his knees with a single punch.

Vesticus hobbled towards them.

"Do you have no shame, doctor?" Vesticus asked, sounding appalled.

The knocked down doctor grinned greedily.

"Ah, Rear Admiral, just the man I was looking for! Look, this is Top Hat Sabo, I've taken him down, give me my 300 million!"

Sabo gulped, knowing he wouldn't be able to hold Vesticus off any longer.

Vesticus knocked the town doctor out with the heel of his boot.

He tutted at the sight of Sabo before turning away from Sabo and walking away.

"Come."

"Why should I, marine, So that you can arrest me!?"

"I'm a doctor first and a marine second."

***  
 **AN: Thanks for reading.**


	25. Vesticus and Bon Clay

**An: I hope you enjoy.**

*** **Vesticus' clinic**

Hearing the loud raps on his door, Vesticus left his patient for a moment to open the door.

Outside the door stood Vice Admiral Alistair. Alistair was a tall and broad heavyset aged man with many wrinkles and curly raven-black hair.

His piercing blue eyes glanced at Vesticus before looking beyond at the body of Sabo.

"Ah, excellent! I'll be taking Top-Hat from here. You'll get your cut of the bounty in a week's time."

Rushing back to his patient, Vesticus didn't spare another glance to the Vice Admiral.

"I'm afraid that I'm not done operating on my patient."

Alistair glared impatiently.

"Look, Shirticus, I don't have any time for your bullshit. Just give him here or become an outlaw."

Vesticus cursed under his breath.

"Just another… hour or 2. Please."

Alistair unsheathed his sword.

"Give him here, now!"

Vesticus worked faster than before, trying to fix Sabo completely but not even close to fast enough.

"30 minutes!"

"GIVE HIM HERE!"

"Please!"

Alistair put his sword up against Vesticus' neck.

Suddenly, a tremendous burst of sound-waves knocked the Vice Admiral back, sending him flying back into the wall of the rather small clinic.

The wall cracked behind Alistair.

The old Vice Admiral grunted and got to his feet in time to see all 10 of his men knocked out by a badly shaven but easily identified Pacha.

Chin struck him with one of his haki-coated bats, sending him flying through the wall this time, breaking the wall into several pieces.

Apoo cracked his knuckles.

"We'll take care of this."

*** **Later**

Alistair punched Pacha back through another random house that belonged to one of the villagers who had all conveniently vacated the area. Pacha coughed up a gob of blood.

"Numba Numba Multiply my strength by 1 million!" screamed Pacha. He grew to the size of the house that he had been punched into, his muscles straining to keep up with the inhuman strength.

Alistair approached, completely covered in haki. From behind, Apoo used sound waves to blast him into Pacha's fist, knocking him out unconscious on contact, probably causing heavy internal bleeding and putting him on death's door.

Vesticus finally exited his clinic, with Sabo weakly hobbling out behind him. Vesticus had a proud smile of achievement.

"I'm done operating on your captain, now get out of here before I- what the hell did you do to Alistair!"

Vesticus' eyes widened comically, he fell to his knees and stayed there for a whole second before snapping out of it and dragging the unconscious Vice Admiral to his clinic.

*** **Later**

Alistair woke up in Vesticus' clinic.

"You filthy traitor of a marine, where the hell are you!" Alistair roared.

Vesticus walked in, "You're finally awake!" he exclaimed.

In response, Alistair tried to get out of bed, before blacking out again.

Vesticus paled, thinking of what would happen when he finally woke up.

Sabo walked in behind him.

"You can come with us."

Vesticus glanced back at Sabo and snapped at him.

"I'm not a bloody pirate. You dumbasses pillage and loot, I'm a marine to stop people like you!"

"But you're an outlaw now… and I'm not like most pirates. We don't pillage, we don't loot, we live for the adventure."

Vesticus took a long breath before beginning to cackle shakily.

He looked up at Sabo.

"Meh, might as well…"

*** **With Luffy, present**

After they picked up Chopper at Drum Island, Luffy decided that they would head straight to Arabasta. It was getting too late to follow the log pose all the way there. They already knew who was behind it.

On the way, they picked up a guy dressed up as a ballerina. He has seemed to be drowning in the water, so they hauled him out.

Luffy held out his hand to shake. The man shook it.

The man introduced himself as Bon Clay.

"In thanks, would you like to see my devil fruit power?" said Bon Clay, wiggling his eyebrows.

Luffy smiled excitedly.

"YES!"

Bon Clay lunged forward at Luffy. His Observation haki told him that Bon Clay didn't mean any harm so he let Bon Clay touch his face.

Bon Clay them proceeded to do so for all of the crewmembers. Nami tried to dodge but got hit anyway. The rest just let it happen because Luffy had.

Bon Dramatically put his right hand to his face and then made a motion as if to wipe it. Suddenly his face transformed to look exactly like Luffy's.

Luffy raised his eyebrows amusedly.

Bon Clay then transformed into all of the strawhats.

"What more…" Bon said, in the form of Nami.

"My body transforms too, not just my face!"

He undid his robe at the front.

Sanji propelled himself off the ship via nosebleed.

Nami pounded Bon Clay into the ground.

Luffy laughed.

"Ah, there's my ship! Farewell my friends!" cried out Bon Clay before twirling and jumping onto the other ship.

"Head straight for Arabasta!" said Bon.

"Yes, Mr. 2 Bon Clay-sama!" said the crew of the ship.

"He's part of Baroque works!" Vivi exclaimed belatedly.

"He can transform into any of us, we need a way to identify ourselves." Said Nami, ever the practical one.

"How about we…"

*** **Later, Arabasta**

"First off, we need to head to the capital, Alubarna, to meet the king and assign him a protection detail." Said Smoker.

"Then Luffy, Smoker and I will head to Crocodile's casino to fight him." Continued Gin.

Everyone on the ship looked to Luffy to finish off the plan that his two fellow in-charge officers had started.

"Then… we'll beat up Croc and eat all the bento in Arabasta!" Luffy finished off happily.

Smoker punched him at the exact same time that in struck him with a tonfa.

"And the rest of you guys will fight his agents and finish them off." Smoker finished finally.

 **An: Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed. I'm just writing this An to reach 1000 words.**


	26. FINALLY AN UPDATE

**An: I'm trying to revive this story and at least finish the Arabasta arc in this chapter. Hope nobody had lost interest.**

 ***** Arabasta Palace**

"In the name of the Marines, we request the presence of his highness Cobra of Arabasta." Smoker commanded the guard of the palace as the Marine entourage following him dropped their dark over-cloaks and revealed their marine jackets from underneath.

The nervous looking palace guard nodded when Smoker waved a badge in front of his face and rushed off inside the palace, appearing moments later to inform them that Cobra would see them now.

Smoker nodded curtly and the marines went inside.

The marines bowed shortly to Cobra once they reached his chamber which was surprisingly sparse of fanciness or grandeur apart from the simple throne in the far end of the room.

"King Cobra." Smoker said respectfully.

"Why do you seek my presence, Marine Commodore." The king said in an authoritative voice.

The marines seemed to glance at each other and one stepped forward from the back.

"V-Vivi!" Cobra said stunned before stepping up from his throne and getting on his knees, "Thank you for finding her!" he said earnestly to the slightly awkward marines.

Luffy stepped forward, "We haven't just found your daughter, we've found information on the sham of a revolution going on in your country."

"The… sham?"

"Your countries' fall, arranged by Royal Shichibukai Crocodile."

"The hero? He would never…"

Cobra looked torn between believing in the hero of the country and the marines who saved his daughter.

"It's true father, I heard the evidence with my own ears!" Vivi said earnestly.

Cobra sighed heavily, "There's no way we can take on one of the Royal Shichibukai…"

Luffy and Smoker glanced at each other, "We will manage this, sir."

Luffy started, "Smoker, me and Gin will take on Crocodile, Zoro, Sanji, Chopper, Yusopp, Nami, you guys take on the agents, the rest of you can stay and protect the king, Tashigi, you lead the defence."

Luffy's crew looked extremely impressed at his planning skill.

"Luffy can…think!" Zoro exclaimed.

Smoker smiled, "He's full of surprises."

Luffy nodded, "I CAN think but…Thinking hurts."

*** **Crocodile's casino**

Luffy entered the casino along with Smoker and Gin, "We demand to see the Royal Shichibukai Crocodile in the name of the marines." Smoker said casually.

A waiter stepped right up, "Follow that corridor, sir."

They followed the corridor right down and… fell through a trapdoor, before they could fall into a cage that was laying there, Luffy extended his chocolate arms and stuck them to the ceiling while Smoker used his smoke to hold up himself and Gin.

Slow clapping greeted them, "I was hoping you'd fall in." Crocodile said, casually.

Smoker, Luffy and Gin dropped to the ground just outside the cage.

"We have evidence of your plan to overthrow Arabasta which is a World Government state." Luffy said, "Please accept your temporary detainment, you are also relieved from your duties as a Royal Shichibukai."

Crocodile snorted, "They pull up dirt on me then send incompetents to arrest me? Pathetic."

Crocodile sent a wave of sand at the three.

Luffy sent back an equal wave of chocolate, fighting back the wave of sand.

"We can't let him get up to the surface." Luffy instructed, "Smoker, restrain him, me and Gin will fight."

Smoker nodded and surrounded Crocodile in smoke.

The Shichibukai smiled and dissolved to sand and exited the smoke, but was still smashed in the face by Luffy.

Luffy withdrew his swords and ran at Crocodile while Gin drew his tonfas and followed.

Crocodile brought up his hook to block both of Luffy's swords before dissolving backwards to avoid Gin.

Luffy sent a chocolate projectile with his left hand while coating his right-hand sword with Haki qnd attacking Crocodile.

Crocodile tried to move backwards but Gin cut him off, moving behind his opponent and swinging.

Crocodile was forced to take the hit directly to his hook, getting it cut clean off.

The soon-to-be-former-Shichibukai roared and turned himself into a huge sandstorm but was effectively shut in by Smooker who had tied them all into a huge bubble of smoke.

Unfortunately for the marine trio, Crocodile burst the bubble and escaped to the desert above.

Luffy, Gin and Smoker cursed creatively before following their opponent up.

"You know, even if you beat me, my plan will take place… my men are kidnapping the king as we speak, and then… when the conflict is going to begin… the city will blow!"

Luffy nodded to Smoker, "Go, you're the only one of us who can stop it."

Crocodile sneered, "Do you think you can beat me with only two of you WHILE we're in a desert."

In response, Luffy sprung at Crocodile releasing the chocolate burst from his legs and swinging both his Haki covered swords at the Shichibukai who smiled and caught Luffy's legs in shackles of sand.

Luffy escaped by melting off his legs and recreating them outside but having to block burst of sand from Crocodile who dissolved into the ground and appeared next to Smoker who turned himself to smoke and flew over his head.

Luffy ran from behind and swung a haki sword into Crocodile's back, drawing blood, "Don't forget about me, Croccy!" he yelled before putting his hand against Crocodile's back and trying to cover him in chocolate.

Crocodile covered himself in haki causing the chocolate to melt away and Luffy to back off a few steps as Gin's tonfas were shattered on the Shichibukai's back.

Crocodile's haki dissipated and in one second, Luffy jumped with a chocolate boost and grabbed Crocodile, taking him up into the air and planting a punch directly across his face.

Crocodile covered himself in haki again and for a long agonizing moment, their hakis clashed.

Gin watched with awe from the ground.

"What power…" he whispered.

With a final great heave, Luffy won out and Crocodile smashed into the ground, completely out cold with a huge bruise on his face.

*** **At the palace**

Luffy's marines were fighting Mr 4 and Miss Merry Christmas.

"Activate code red! Calling reinforcements." Mr 4 yelled into a baby snail.

Within minutes, multiple other agents showed up just in time to see a bullet enter Mr 4's leg, permanently incapacitating him.

Kira put down his smoking gun, "I think we need to call our own reinforcements."

Zoro, Sanji, Chopper, Usopp and Nami came running.

"TASHIGI! The agents! They're coming…" at this point, Nami noticed the agents.

"…here."

Zoro engaged Mr 1.

Sanji engaged Mr 2.

Nami engaged Mrs 1.

Usopp and Chopper played rock papers scissors and Usopp went to help Nami.

"Hey Nami… remember that weapon, I was building for you?"

Nami nodded.

"here it is." Usopp chucked a staff at her.

*** **Zoro vs Mr 1**

"No sword can hurt me, Mr Swordsman." Mr 1 said in his low gravelly voice.

"Let's see about that…" Zoro said then slashed Mr 1 with a haki covered sword.

A thin cut opened across the agent's chest but not nearly as deep as Zoro had hoped.

'Damn it! My haki is still weak!" Zoro thought furiously.

Meanwhile, the blade man formed a blade on his arm and swung at Zoro who just about managed to let his sword survive.

Within 5 minutes, it was obvious Zoro would win.

With one final stab, Zoro penetrated Mr 1's chest with his sword, missing his heart but only just.

Meanwhile Sanji had stopped fighting Mr 2 after he turned into a Nami lookalike.

Zoro approached from behind, then spun around Mr 2 so that they were face to face.

With one slash, Mr 2 was down, still in the form of Nami… with his shirt cut straight through.

In the few seconds before Mr 2 turned back into himself, Sanji gave himself a nose-bleed so hard that he flew into a wall behind him.

"Stupid ero-cook." Zoro sighed.

Nami managed to lightning Ms 1 in the face just before Zoro was about to intervene.

Zoro cracked his knuckles, "We're done here."

*** **Clock Tower**

Crocodile just about managed to survive the big explosion in the sky.

"Well that's a crisis averted."

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: I rushed through a lot of things this chapter but eh… whatever, I didn't manage to quite write the epic fight I wanted to between Croc and Luffy…but it works.**

 **Px5 out.**


	27. The Escape of Nico Robin

**An: Umm, Here's a chapter… it hasn't been 5 and a half months or anything… If anybody actually reads this anymore**

 ***** Present**

Ms All Sunday, Nico Robin, watched her last hope for escape, in the form of Crocodile get beaten with almost casual ease by the Strawhat marine.

Tears streaked down her face silently.

This was her last chance. There was no way she would be able to get past these marines, they had already called for backup, Arabasta would shortly be covered in marine troops and surrounded by marine ships to capture all of Baroque Works, and she would be number one on the list of people to be caught, and there was no way in hell that she could match up to the Strawhat if even Crocodile couldn't overcome him.

With the sleeve of her jacket, Robin wiped away any trace of tears from her face, put on her calmest poker face, and walked out from the building she had been spectating the battle from.

"Hello." she spoke.

Strawhat spun around, his sword drawn and at her throat in an instant, his other hand dripping into chocolate and being drawn back.

It was hard to keep a congenial expression on her face with a sword at her throat, but she managed somehow.

Luffy's expression relaxed, "Oh, it's just you, Nico Robin.", he said, sheathing his sword again and stepping back from the raven-haired woman.

Robin held up her hands to be shackled but Luffy made no move to restrain her.

A look of mild surprise flickered across Robin's face as she looked into the face of the suddenly serious Marine.

"You aren't guilty, are you?"

Robin shook her head.

"Why does the World Government want you so bad?"

"I can read poneglyphs."

The simple admission left Luffy shocked.

That was it?

She _could_ read the ancient language on the poneglyphs.

"I'm a scholar." Robin clarified.

"That's it?" Luffy asked.

"I wanted to find out the truth about the history of the world, but this was my last lead." Robin admitted, once again holding her hands up to be shackled but Luffy shook his head.

"Smokey will be getting back here soon, get off this island quickly, I can only protect you for so long." Luffy said.

"Don't you understand! I have no will to move forward anymore, this was my last chance!" Robin shouted out loud.

Luffy looked the archeologist in the eyes.

"If the circumstances were different, I would have offered you a place in my crew, but in my current position, all I can do is let you get away from here because you DO NOT deserve to die now, before fulfilling your dream." Luffy said with determination in his eyes, "That's why I will make sure that you get off this island safely."

Despite Robin's protestation, Luffy crafted the woman a boat out of chocolate.

She looked at him incredulously.

"It's deep frozen, it will last you about a month, but I would recommend you organise different transport for yourself before that.

With that, Luffy turned himself away from Robin, hoping to come across her again, with enough power to instate her in his crew

*** **In the city**

Luffy found Smoker and Gin in the city.

"Hey Smokey! Gin!" Luffy called out cheerfully to his knackered associates.

Smoker turned around, on alert before spotting Luffy.

"Heya Luffy, Gin and I are heading down to the pub, come with us." Smoker grunted out to his superior officer.

Luffy wrinkled his nose at the thought of alcohol but agreed to go with them.

"By the way, Nico Robin escaped." Luffy slipped in nonchalantly.

"What!" Smoker exclaimed, "How did you let her get away."

"Ah, I fought her real hard, but she had an escape ship ready and I was already tired from fighting Croc." Luffy said cheerfully, while looking a perfect example of someone who wasn't tired in the least.

Smoker looked at Luffy sceptically, "We both know there's no way Nico Robin could have gotten away from you and escaped the marine barricade."

Luffy looked at Smoker innocently, "But I'm just a lowly Chief Commodore, who just took out a Shichibukai, even with luck on my side, there's no way I could be expected to catch Nico after that!"

Smoker gave an exasperated sigh, "You're stronger than most Vice Admirals Luffy, it would have been a piece of cake for you."

"True, but whichever Vice Admiral HQ sends to clean this mess up doesn't know that." Luffy said mischievously.

Smoker sighed, "You are incorrigible, Luffy."

By this point, they had arrived at the pub.

"So what are we doing now?" Gin asked, being new to this whole 'marine' thing, having only left his assigned base for this mission, having only been at that base prior to his promotion.

"Well, we get an assignment from HQ." Smoker explained, "Usually, if you were in East Blue, it would be up to me to tell you where to go as I usually handle this stuff, but now that you're involved in the Grand Line, you will probably get orders from Marineford."

"Got that much, but what will I have to do?" Gin asked.

"It depends. There's a few things you could do. There's patrol duty, where you get a course and you have to travel it and watch for misdeeds and pirates, or conversely, you could be assigned to a branch and have to work there to keep local peace. There isn't a branch in Arabasta currently, but after this fiasco, the World Government will almost certainly want to make a branch here." Smoker commented.

"I want to be on patrol duty!" Luffy exclaimed, "I don't wanna be stuck in a random base forever."

"Well, you'll have to do whatever HQ tells you cuz you're not under my purview anymore." Smoker said.

"Eh, Gramps can probably help me out there." Luffy said.

"Maybe, but he's probably too busy to interfere with your course." Smoker said just as a marine burst into the pub.

"Sir, the ship of Vice Admiral Garp has been spotted." the marine saluted his three superior officers.

Luffy sprung up, "Oh SHIT! I need to get out of here!"

Just as he was making to sprint out the room, Smoker grabbed his shoulder "Hey, you need to get your assignment from Garp."

"NOOOOOOOOOO! There's no way he'd accept me letting Robin get away!"

"Robin now, is it?" Gin asked coyly.

"Tell Gramps I've left then send me my details." Luffy said to Smoker, before leaving in a soru, only to be stopped at the door.

Vice Admiral Monkey D Garp extended one arm out and caught his grandson in the middle of a perfectly executed soru, his arm only straining a bit to stop the extreme velocity with a single action.

"YOU AREN'T GETTIN' AWAY THAT EASY! WHAT'S THIS ABOUT NICO ROBIN ESCAPING HUH!" the Vice Admiral yelled at his grandson, who instinctively coated his head in armament haki, only slightly softening the blow of the marine hero.

*** **End of Chapter**


	28. Luffy v Coby

**An: And another update, this time a little less than 5 and a half months later…**

 **An2: I'm not quite sure what to do with Robin, there's 2 options for her, either she becomes part of Luffy's marines, with Garp's permission, or, she joins Sabo's Top Hat pirates. If you have any opinions on this, please leave them in a review or pm.**

 ***** With Robin**

The Chocolate boat was surprisingly hardy, and as Robin learned later when she got hungry, she could eat pieces of chocolate off the boat, while not healthy, this provided her some sustenance until she arrived on the next island with the help of a log pose.

She still didn't know what to think of the strange Strawhat Marine. He seemed like such an opposite of the traditional marine. If she didn't know otherwise, she would have a hard time telling him apart from some of the pirates after One Piece, but his urge to protect everybody set him apart from any pirates she ever knew.

As she finally got to a shore, almost two weeks later, thirsty beyond belief, having relied on only about 5 bottles full of water, and only the chocolate of the boat for sustenance, Robin continued to wonder about the enigma in the form of the Strawhat Marine.

'Who are you, Monkey D Luffy?'

 ***** With Luffy,Present**

"Ummmmm." Luffy stumbled for an excuse as to why he let Robin escape but his grandfather didn't give him any time to react, laying another fist of love into his head.

"If you're getting 'exhausted' in a fight with goddamn Crocodile, then we need to rehash your training!" Garp snapped at his grandson.

"Umm, well, how's Coby doing?" Luffy asked, trying to change the subject.

Garp puffed out his chest in pride, "I've turned that wimp into a proper marine!"

Luffy smiled, "I knew he had it in him."

"COBY, GET OVER HERE NOW!" Garp yelled out to his second protégé.

A pink-haired Marine ran over to Garp in a gust of wind, which Luffy filed away for further questioning later, choosing instead to marvel at the change that had occurred in the boy.

Coby had grown to almost twice his height, and while his muscles hadn't had to chance to develop fully, his body was far more toned than Luffy remembered of the chubby short boy from East Blue.

"Hey howzit Coby!" Luffy said cheerfully.

"I want a duel." The boy replied.

Luffy smirked, "Okay then, let's see how good you are, Coby."

With a quick soru, Luffy was right next to Coby and almost landed a punch on the boy who escaped once again in a gust of wind, before appearing behind Luffy, sucking the Strawhat Marine towards himself with one hand which turned into a tornado, then going for a kick.

Luffy twisted out of the way of Coby's attack, simultaneously sending a jet of chocolate at his adversary.

Coby sucked the chocolate into a tornado on his left hand, before sending it back, this time as part of a mini tornado that emanated from Coby's hand. Luffy held out one haki-infused hand to stop the attack, before soru-ing back to Coby, his swords unsheathed, and went for a few strikes, only to be blown away by Coby enveloping himself in a small tornado.

Luffy coated his arm in haki and grabbed Coby right through the tornado, making the tornado dissipate instantly, and Coby unable to escape his haki-enfused grip.

With a grunt, Coby swept Luffy's legs from under him, and took out a handgun, pointing it straight between Luffy's eyes.

"I won?" Coby said in wonderment, before chocolate he had failed to notice surrounding him suddenly covered him entirely, freezing him in place as Luffy plucked the gun out of his hand.

"Not quite." Luffy grinned.

The chocolate covering Coby's body melted away to leave the embarrassed boy just standing there.

"You should always pay attention to your surroundings." Luffy advised Coby.

"Yeah…"

"But, in any case, you wouldn't have won there, I have a logia-type devil fruit and haki, there's no way I could be taken out by a pistol unless I was already out for the count.

Coby smiled sheepishly.

"But you did well! Which devil fruit do you have?" Luffy asked curiously.

"The Tornu-Tornu no mi!" Coby said proudly.

Luffy whistled, "You got lucky there kid, my devil fruit turned me into chocolate." 

"I was hoping to capitalize the devil-fruit advantage." Coby said, "If I could have caught you by surprise, I could have sucked you into a tornado."

"True, but I have experience with logias, as do many grand line pirates, so it isn't a factor you can rely upon, but if it works out that way, you can take it as an added bonus." Luffy said.

"Well, I'll leave you to your beating." Coby said slyly, looking back towards Garp.

Luffy paled, he had forgotten about his grandfather, "Cover for me, Coby."

Coby shook his head wildly, "No way I'm getting in trouble with _him_ because of you! Sorry Luffy-San!"

"PLEEEEEASE!" Luffy whined.

Despite Luffy's pleas, Coby did nothing as Luffy was dragged away by Garp.

"I guess we should go with him too." Gin said.

Smoker nodded, "Yup, let's go."

*** **Inside Garp's ship**

"So what's the real reason Nico Robin escaped." Garp demanded of his grandson.

"w-what?"

"Don't think I'm stupid Luffy, there's no way she just escaped you without a reason."

Luffy looked at Garp intently.

"She isn't guilty."

"What do you mean! She sunk 7 marine battleships when she was a kid!"

"No she didn't! The World Government forged that so that they could go after her, the real reason is…she can read the poneglyphs."

Garp's face turned grave, "Luffy… we can't let someone who can find the location of the secret weapons walk free…"

"So we can incriminate an innocent child!?" Luffy demanded, "It doesn't matter what the marines want, I'm not capturing Nico Robin."

Garp looked a little guilty, "Well, Luffy…the World Government has decided she can't be let to go free any longer, in the near future, she will be landing in Water 7 and stationed there are…"

"Who are stationed at Water 7? Is there a Rear Admiral there or something?" Luffy asked.

"Well Luffy, you see… for other reasons…Cipher Pol is there."

Luffy's eyes widened.

"Which Cipher Pol" the Strawhat marine whispered.

"CP9."

*** **End of Chapter**


	29. Stuff happens

***** With Robin**

She had arrived at an island known as Jaya. Years of spying work kept her identity secret but the people of the town weren't nice and the place was run down with pirates of the worst kind, led by some 50-million beli hotshot by the name of Bellamy.

She almost wanted to take that smug smile off his face but even if she could beat the pirate, and it would be quite a fight, it would create too much attention for her, and someone or the other would uncover her real identity.

She was better off just keeping herself hidden, she decided while sipping a tall glass of beer at a rowdy local pub where the scum of the town collected.

This was the only place she could hide.

Robin thought back once again to the Strawhat Marine and what he had whispered to her as she was leaving, prepared to die at sea.

"The truth behind the lost century… it resides in Raftel."

 ***** Present**

"CP9." Garp said heavily.

Luffy's eyes widened, "Damn… she doesn't stand a chance."

Garp looked at his son grimly, "I know what you want to do Luffy, but you can't, you may be able to defeat CP9, but you will be forfeiting your career, I can't let that happen. I will be changing your course shortly."

A look of pure rage crossed Luffy's face, "I should have been a _pirate._ " He spat at his grandfather, "At least that way, I could actually help to protect justice!"

Garp raised his fist, "Don't even CONSIDER it, punk."

Despite the incoming threat of a fist of love, Luffy shoved his grandfather to the side, using considerable enough force to actually move the far stronger man."

"I'm going and you can't stop me."

Garp growled and leaped at his Grandson, who used a haki-infused arm to attempt to block the attack, only succeeding in reducing the pain but hearing the definite crack, as Garp's haki overpowered his own.

"Chocolate jet!" Luffy unleashed one of his strongest attacks, only moving Garp back an inch but Luffy had vanished in a soru in the meantime.

Garp engaged in his own soru, as fast if not faster than Luffy's and followed his Grandson's aura to his ship.

Luffy was addressing his crew.

"Everyone! We leave right now, we're going to Jaya Island!"

A fist of love sent Luffy through the wooden flooring of the Merry.

Luffy's crew stared in horror at the man who seemed to appear out of nowhere and put their captain down like it was nothing.

Zoro drew his swords, coating them in his haki, and took an offensive stance.

Sanji also took an offensive stance but the rest of the marines on Luffy's ship recognized the Vice Admiral.

Tanaka stepped in front of Zoro, "Stop, that's the Vice Admiral, Monkey D Garp!" 

Zoro's eyes widened, "Monkey… he's related to Luffy, why would he…to his own grandson…"

Luffy sprung out of the hole in the ground, with obvious swelling on his head but he shook it off.

"Get off my ship Gramps."

Garp locked eyes with Luffy and the two had a long staring contest which was broken by Garp picking his nose.

"Goddamit Luffy… I'll cover for you this time but…"

Luffy looked at Garp questioningly, "but… I'll do anything!"

"…I'm forwarding the paperwork to you!"

Luffy broke into a cold sweat, "How much."

"A few thousand pages at least." Garp mentioned, "Maybe 5-6k."

Luffy's legs started shaking but he kept strong, "I will help you, ROBIN!"

Garp sighed, "To handle the fallout from this, you will need all the political clout possible, even with me helping, I'm promoting you."

"REALLY!" Luffy's eyes turned into stars.

"Yeah, as much of a mistake as it seems."

*** **Later**

Luffy's crew sailed on to the next island at top speed, the Going Merry was being pushed to its limits, as Luffy sailed to catch up with Robin, after they had spent a few days in Arabasta to sort out the entire affair with Crocodile, with Luffy itching to set sail again.

Proactively, his grandfather had started working on clearing Robin's name, issuing a complaint to her bounty which, because of his rank, until resolved, meant Robin had a clean bill for the moment.

*** **With Sengoku**

"What is the meaning of this, Garp!"

Garp crunched on his crackers, "Meaning of what!?"

Sengoku slammed down a sheaf of papers.

"This! Why are you involved with this Nico Robin matter and why have you contested her bounty?"

"Ah, her, my grandson wants to make her one of his crewmates." Garp said cheerfully.

"Absolutely not! Especially after the mess this affair has already become, what with Cipher Pol getting involved."

"Well, Luffy has his heart set on helping that woman, and you know what he's like. He'll defy you if he has to, He'll risk his position to help someone."

"Well, you have to call him off. Nico Robin has several vested interests in her much bigger than him."

"You know he was trained by me, right. You know he could topple over most of your Vice Admirals, even at his current age. Why would you risk someone of his power going rogue, especially with his willpower, you wouldn't be able to take him out until he became a much bigger problem than Nico Robin already poses."

"Even still, you can't let him do whatever he wants. Nico Robin is not only wanted by CP9 but also Admiral Aokiji and even the Government has an unusually close eye on her."

"Do you know why?!"

"She sunk 8 marine battleships and she escaped a buster call at the age of 8, going on to be associated with several criminal organisations in all of the blues, not the least of which being Crocodile's huge racket in Arabasta."

"No, the real reason the World Government wants her so bad is… she can read the ancient language. That's it, the only reason she's had to hide for so many years, in so many criminal organizations because of the protection they granted her, my grandson values justice above all, and I will not persuade him otherwise, ever." Garp said determinedly.

*** **End of Chapter**


	30. Luffy vs Bellamy

**An: Aand it's been another month. I feel bad for you guys, I really do.**

 ***** Later**

"Captain!" Nami called out, "Our log pose is pointing up towards the sky."

"You don't need to keep track of that, you know, we have an eternal pose to Jaya to get us there quickly." Tanaka said, glancing at the chief navigator.

"Yes, I know, but I thought it was worth looking into." Nami said defensively.

"Don't worry, it's a common problem in this particular area, many a marine have been led astray by their log pose before the island of Jaya, there are many theories about what it is, ranging from gravitational interference all the way up to ludicrous wives' tales about sky islands." Tanaka said.

"SKY ISLAND!" Luffy's voice reverberated around the entire ship.

"Oh no, you've set Luffy off." Nami sighed.

Tanaka paled, "Oh god no…"

"Tanaka! We're going to Sky Island!"

"What about saving Robin?" Nami asked, hoping to dissuade her captain.

Luffy deflated slightly, "We can do both! First, we rescue Robin, maybe we gather information on Sky Island on Jaya, then… WE GO TO SKY ISLAND!" Luffy cried out joyfully.

Nami sighed again, hoping against hope that Luffy would forget about it by the time they got to Jaya or he would make them all look like fools for believing in Sky Island.

Still, she couldn't help but almost believe that Sky Island was real, after all the craziness of the Grand Line, it really wouldn't be all that absurd… and she would secretly like to see it…

Nami scolded herself mentally for entertaining such foolish ideas, god knows they already had more than enough of those with Luffy.

"I see land!" Luffy shouted again, shooting himself up into the sky using a jet of chocolate.

"What's he doing?" Chopper asked innocently.

Luffy began to use geppo to run towards the island, also beginning to use jets of chocolate out of his feet to speed himself up.

Tanaka cursed filthily.

"I don't think that's physically possible…" Chopper pondered.

"Speed up!" Tanaka roared, "We have to catch up to Luffy before he messes up again!" completely ignoring Chopper.

*** **Later**

Thankfully, they managed to reach at the same time as Luffy did, largely due to their captain losing his bearing in his effort to get there quickly.

Luffy scratched his head ruefully, "We need to find Robin, let's start scoping out the city."

"That actually sounds like a good idea, are you sure you came up wi-" Tanaka began

"Let's go to the restaurant!"

"Ya, that's what I was expecting." Sighed Tanaka.

"Or maybe the bar, we can gather information there." Luffy added sensibly.

Tanaka perked up again, "There's hope for you yet, Luffy."

"AND THEY HAVE MEAT!"

"Or maybe not…"

In the end, they decided that Luffy and Zoro would go to the bar where most of the shadier crowd seemed to hang out, while the rest of the crew would just patrol, in official marine garb, and keep a look out for Robin.

*** **Later, at the bar**

Luffy ran straight up to the barman, "Hey dude! Give me meat!"

Zoro, on the other hand, took the chance to look around a bit before being roughly shoved out of the way by a blonde man.

Zoro gritted his teeth and glared at the man who had shoved him, "What's YOUR problem…" he asked.

The man looked back at Zoro with narrowed eyes, "You must be new here punk, Do Not Challenge Me."

Zoro was about to respond but another man next to him shushed him.

"Don't! That's Bellamy, he has a 50 million bounty, don't mess with him if you know what's good for you!"

"A pirate eh?" Zoro said, "Well then, I'll leave him to Luffy."

"Are you pirates?" the man next to him asked fearfully.

"Nah." Zoro said, not elaborating further.

Bellamy sat down with a thud next to Luffy who was digging into his food.

Bellamy grabbed the plate out of Luffy's hand, "Mine." He said simply.

Luffy's eyes darkened.

"Give that back." He said simply.

"You gonna make me?" Bellamy grinned, "I have a 50 million bounty, you would do well to stay out of my way."

"A 50 million bounty…so you're a pirate?" Luffy asked.

"Captain of the infamous Bellamy Pirates." He said proudly.

"Then I am within my rights to do this." Luffy said as he raised a haki-infused first, and punched Bellamy straight through the wall of the pub before he could even react.

"NOBODY TOUCHES MY FOOD!" Luffy yelled before jumping out through the hole in the wall to where Bellamy was standing once again, only with a bloody nose now.

"How dare you punk!" Bellamy snarled before his legs started vibrating and he began bouncing from building to building.

A crowd gathered whispering sacredly.

A man shouted, "Get out of there kid! Bellamy is going to massacre you!"

Zoro walked out, "Don't worry, he'll be fine." He said casually.

"You don't know Bellamy like we do! He's crazy strong."

"And so is my Chief Commodore." Zoro smirked.

"You're marines!" one of the townsmen exclaimed.

"He's doing it!" another man shouted out.

And indeed, Bellamy seemed to be hurtling at Luffy at breakneck speeds…only to collide with Luffy's fist which pummeled the blonde-haired pirate into the ground, making a dent in the concrete.

"Zoro, tie him up and take him to the ship, we'll deliver him at the next marine base we encounter." Luffy said, having spotted someone at the very fringe of the crowd, "I have someone to meet…"

*** **With Robin**

Nico Robin watched in slight awe as Monkey D Luffy, The Marine Chief Commodore who had let her go destroyed Bellamy like he was nothing.

Bellamy was a 50-million pirate who was an acknowledged powerful rookie and Luffy made him look like a toddler.

Well, she shouldn't be too surprised, he did beat Crocodile as well.

But what panicked her was that he was just a Chief Commodore.

The Marines didn't seem to be very focused on her at the moment, and people like Luffy had helped her evade capture before, but the fact that even he was only a Chief Commodore made the true might of the Marines very acutely real to her.

They could crush her like a bug.

Alone, she didn't have the power or the cunning to evade capture if The Marines decided she was a priority.

With that in mind, she quietly slipped away into an alley, Luffy was surprisingly astute, she didn't want to be spotted by the Chief Commodore, even if he did seem to be okay with letting her live.

She let out a sigh of relief as she concluded she was far enough away from the pub and the commotion that the Strawhat Marine couldn't notice her anymore.

"Hello Robin." Luffy's voice spoke quietly from behind her.

Robin froze and turned slowly and saw him.

"Luffy…"

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: Hope you enjoyed, don't kill me because of the long waits. I'm really sorry about it, I would suggest that you guys wait for a few chapters to be uploaded. I think this is chapter 30, so maybe wait until I'm at chapter 35, then read 5 at once.**

 **That is what I do with stories that I follow that publish shorter chapters, because I prefer to read longer chapters.**

 **This obviously raises the question, why do I write short chapters then? Well, mainly because I find it hard to continue writing for extended periods of time. Even for these teeny tiny 1000 word chapters, I often write them in 2 or 3 sittings which breaks my chain of thought. And also, because I write fairly slowly, and there's already a month between chapters, don't want there to be a year for a 10,000 words update, right? I do need to keep my readers interested…**

 **Anyway, all of the reviews that express how much they like this story do help! Thank you for all the kind words on this story, and sorry for the extended Author's note here, I really wanted to say some things.**

 **An2: Sorry again for the slow updates, thanks for sticking around guys…**

 **PxFive out.**


	31. Robin Joins

**An: Happy New Year Guys! (And Happy Birthday to me, yes I'm born on New Years) Also, good god I haven't updated anything in a while!**

 ***** Present**

Nico Robin quietly slipped away into an alley, Luffy was surprisingly astute, she didn't want to be spotted by the Chief Commodore, even if he did seem to be okay with letting her live.

She let out a sigh of relief as she concluded she was far enough away from the pub and the commotion that the Strawhat Marine couldn't notice her anymore.

"Hello Robin." Luffy's voice spoke quietly from behind her.

Robin froze and turned slowly and saw him.

"Luffy…" the woman said guardedly, freaking out internally and trying to figure out a route of escape from the strong marine.

Despite her minimal outward reaction, Luffy was able to tell from her body language that she was in fight or flight mode.

"Chill out Robin, I just want to talk."

Despite his assurances, Robin's tenseness didn't abate in the slightest.

Luffy sighed, "Come, walk with me." He said simply.

Seeing no other way out other than following the Marine, Robin followed him grudgingly, hoping to get to better terrain to make her escape, but knowing that the Chief Commodore was too smart to let her escape that easily.

There was about half a minute of uncomfortable silence as the pair walked into the market square, fearful and wary looks following the imposing Chief Commodore.

"You know" Luffy started, "You aren't going to get much further at this rate."

Robin frowned but didn't voice any of the questions that this raised for her.

Luffy raised an eyebrow, "You think I am your enemy, Nico Robin?"

Robin maintained her steadfast silence in the face of his question as his piercing gaze bit into her eyes.

"If I was your enemy, I would have crushed you weeks ago." Luffy said evenly.

"So why haven't you?" the words fell unbidden from Robin's mouth as her genuine confusion voiced itself.

Any way she looked at it, there was no reason for Luffy to not have her behind bars at this point.

"Because you have done nothing to deserve it!" Luffy said impassionedly.

"Yeah well, it seems like your vaunted Marines don't need a cause to arrest someone." Robin said tightly.

"I'm trying to help you Robin. I know you have a dream, I respect that, I _admire_ that. You don't deserve to be put away. I can't bear it on my conscience."

"Then why don't you just leave me alone!"

Luffy gave her a long look, "I said you weren't going to get much further, that wasn't because of any threat that I posed to you…" Luffy began.

Robin frowned at the ominous statement, "What does that mean?"

"Cipher Pol 9." Luffy said simply.

A gasp escaped Robin's lips and her face paled drastically.

Luffy watched grimly as the strong woman fell to her knees.

"CP9 is stationed in Water 7 and knows of your projected arrival in the city, they would be ready to capture you at all costs and execute you." Luffy said with more than a little concern in his voice for the woman he hoped would be joining his crew that day.

"Get away from me." Robin said quietly, "If CP9 is after me, then you can't help me. Thank you Mr Marine, I feel like we could have been… friends" Robin said, "but for that exact reason I can't let you sacrifice your career and quite possibly your life in a fruitless endeavor to save me."

Luffy shook his head, "Something as insignificant as Cipher Pol isn't enough to stop the Strawhat Marines!" Luffy said fiercely, his Haki flowing freely, making the scum of the city cower even more than they were earlier but providing Robin with a strange sense of comfort.

"You don't understand!" Robin cried out, "CP9 would crush you like a bug!"

"It's you who doesn't understand" Luffy replied, "CP9 is the least of my worries, I am far more powerful than you give me credit for." He said really letting his power flow off of him in awe-inspiring waves, his eyes glowing with fierce protectiveness.

"Nico Robin!" he began, "Become my comrade!"

*** **At the ship**

Luffy returned to the ship with the newest member of the Strawhat Marines in tow, grinning widely.

"HEY GUYS!" he yelled at the ship as he approached, "MEET OUR NEWEST RECRUIT!"

Tanaka jumped down from the ship to greet whoever his Chief Commodore had brought but stopped in his tracks, "You recruited…NICO ROBIN!" he said in disbelief.

Not noticing the apprehension of his subordinate, Luffy nodded happily.

Robin hesitated at the less than lukewarm reception to her joining, "Maybe I should-"

"Now that you're in, I'm not letting you go!" Luffy said firmly before turning to Tanaka, "This is not up for debate." He said in an authoritative tone that most didn't know Luffy possessed.

Tanaka nodded, "Yessir" he said, stunned by the determination in Luffy's voice but knowing that Luffy meant what he said and probably had a good reason for it.

"Luffy!" called Zoro, waving him over.

Luffy gave one more stern look to Tanaka before walking over to Zoro, Robin following him, unsure of what she should be doing.

Zoro gestured to two men standing next to him, "These monkeys say they know how to get to Sky Island." He said casually.

The two men seemed to swoon, the first saying, "Aww! Do you REALLY think we look like monkeys!"

"Of course Mr Monkey!" Luffy replied earnestly.

The two blushed before the first one introduced them, "I'm the Salvage King Masira" he said proudly, "And this is my brother the Sonar King Shoujou!"

"And you know how to get to Sky Island?" Luffy asked eagerly.

The brothers exchanged a glance, "Well, we know someone who does." They answered finally.

Luffy smiled dazzlingly, "Well, lead the way, c'mon guys, Robin!" he said and followed the monkey brothers.

Robin smiled slightly at the sheer childlike happiness that Luffy seemed to possess.

*** **End of Chapter**


	32. Sailing into the Sky

**An: Obligatory apologies for the lateness of this chapter. Platitudes that the next chapter will be out quicker.**

 ***** Later**

Shoujou and Masira led the Strawhat Marines to a man named 'Montblanc Cricket' who was the leader of the Saruyama Alliance.

Luffy stiffened slightly at the knowledge that the two Monkey brothers were pirates but didn't say anything, as he believed in the idea of good pirates.

He noticed his crew giving him a few sideways glances but they did as their Chief Commodore did and didn't move to arrest the men leading them.

The Monkeys led them to a cardboard cutout of a huge palace which led into a half of a house.

After introductions, Cricket introduced himself to them.

At the mention of him being a pirate, some of Luffy's crew stiffened, which Cricket noticed immediately.

He gave them a suspicious look, "So who ARE you anyway?"

"This is my crew!" Luffy declared proudly.

"And who may you be?"

"Marine Chief Commodore Monkey D. Luffy!" Luffy grinned, extending a hand, "Nice to meet you."

Cricket gave the Monkey Brothers a wild look, "You led Marines right here! You idiots!" he said as he took on a fighting stance.

Luffy raised his hands, grinning, "We don't fight good pirates but if you attack us, we'll need to defend ourselves."

Cricket gave him a skeptical look, not lowering his weapons but speaking evenly, "Okay then, why don't you put your weapons down?"

"Alright then." Luffy said cheerfully, as his sword seemed to just appear on the floor, with the speed he unsheathed it and placed it down.

"Luffy!" Nami protested, "What if they decide to attack us!"

"Don't worry! I like these guys." Luffy said simply and motioned for the rest of his crew to drop their weapons.

Some, including Nami seemed reluctant to, but Tanaka leaned over to her and whispered in her ear, "Luffy knows what he's doing, he's strong enough to take them all on weaponless, there's nothing to be worried about."

Nami sighed and dropped her staff.

Upon the last of the Strawhat Marines dropping their weapons, Cricket dropped his own fists and grinned at them.

"So you wanna get to Sky Island, eh?"

Luffy nodded.

"With the might of the Marines, you just might make it." Cricket grinned, "But if you do, you gotta do something for me first…"

*** **The Knock-Up Stream**

"Luffy," Nami said nervously, "Are you sure this is the best idea?"

The Marine Chief Commodore looked out at the massive whirlpool that was about to crush their ship into pieces, that Nami was trying desperately to stop from doing so, and looked back at his navigator.

"Yup."

Nami growled in anger, trying to keep the ship in line.

Chopper was having a mini-fit on deck.

Tanaka sighed, "Good luck to us." He muttered.

"How can you be so calm about this!" Nami screamed.

"The whirlpool has swallowed us." Zoro noticed calmly.

Usopp yelled hysterically, closing his eyes dramatically, before opening one to take a peek.

"What happened to the giant whirlpool!" Luffy whined, at the apparent lack of said giant whirlpool which seemed to have been enveloping their ship mere seconds earlier.

"Saved." Usopp sighed.

"Saved!" Chopper looked up hopefully from where he had been cowering on the floor.

"Not quite." Nami noticed grimly, "It's starting again."

"Again" Zoro said blandly.

"Again!?" Usopp cried out.

"Again!" Chopper curled back into a ball.

"Again!" Luffy screamed joyfully, as the whirlpool began to pick up steam again.

As the whirlpool burst upwards, taking the ship of the Strawhats up with it, multiple people watched from afar back on Jaya Island.

The common riffraff watched in awe at the sight.

Cricket and the Monkey Brothers grinned at the sight.

"Find Sky Island," Cricket said determinedly, "And ring the bell."

On a corner of the port, Marshall D. Teach looked up at the marine ship ascending into the sky, "Well, that's a crisis averted." He said with a sigh.

*** **On the Ship**

A massive seaking fell, almost right onto the Strawhat's ship, Luffy get out a grunt as he jumped up, gushing chocolate out of his arm, pushing the seaking off its collision course with their ship, just about saving them.

"Everything is falling!" Usopp screamed.

"So this was just a natural calamity after all." Sanji said thoughtfully.

Nami looked to be concentrating, before her expression cleared, "Open the sails!"

"What?" 

"We're still on the ocean, that means we're still on an ocean current." Nami explained, "Now OPEN THE DAMN SAILS BEFORE WE FALL OFF THIS STREAM!"

The Strawhat Marines hastened to do as Nami said, unfurling the sails and watching in awe as their ship seemed to fly.

"We're flying!" Chopper said, barely being able to believe himself.

Nami cried out in joy.

"Hell yeah, we're flying into the sky now!" Luffy said, excitedly.

"Nami, you're amazinggggg!" Sanji exclaimed.

"As long as I can grasp the winds and the ocean currents," Nami said, "We can sail anywhere!" she declared proudly.

After half a second of silence, Luffy asked, "Are we there yet?"

Nami gave him a dirty look for breaking her moment but decided to grace him with a response, "It should be just on the other side of those clouds." She said.

"I wonder what's lying in wait for us up there." Luffy said, thinking for once.

"You shoulda thought of that BEFORE you launched us up here!" Tanaka said, with no little annoyance in his voice.

Luffy simply grinned at his crewmate.

Tanaka tapped his chin thoughtfully, "If there truly is an inhabited land, up there that is, then it has not been charted officially by Marines."

Luffy grinned widely, "It's an adventure!" he said happily.

Tanaka smiled slightly, "But more importantly, there is no Marine presence up…there, so it would be our responsibility to establish a Marine presence up there, as these clouds are within the sphere of the World Government's territory."

Luffy grimaced, "I don't want to be tied down anywhere, I wanna be free!" he said, gesturing wildly outwards with his arms.

"I think we should be looking up instead of arguing." Robin said pleasantly.

The entire crew looked up from the discussion between Luffy and Tanaka just in time to run straight into a cloud.

*** **End of Chapter**


	33. The Knight of the Sky

**An: Hmm, I'm really getting back into the feeling of writing after a long time! The last couple super sporadic updates I've had on FFNet have all been in the middle of hectic times where I couldn't dedicate much time to writing, but simply writing these 2 chapters (one on TIP and one here) , and sitting and reading some One Piece again (well, rereading the parts I'm about to write versions of now) has really managed to make this writing far easier than the last couple chapters have been. Here's hoping that I can get this story moving again with the amount of free time I have come into!**

 ***** Present**

"I think we should be looking up instead of arguing." Robin said pleasantly.

The entire crew looked up from the discussion between Luffy and Tanaka just in time to run straight into a cloud.

Chaos.

The Strawhat Marines were in chaos for several seconds as they were enveloped by the clouds they had run into which seemed to extend far upwards.

After being submerged in the clouds for what seemed like forever, the Going Merry emerged from the top of the clouds.

Out of the crew coughing and gasping on the Merry's deck, it was Luffy who was first to his feet.

"Look outside the ship!" Luffy said excitedly, "It's clouds!"

"We are sailing on top of the clouds." Robin noted.

Nami grinned, "In other words, this is the sea of the sky!"

"Look," Tanaka pointed, "The Log Pose is still pointing upwards!"

"We certainly seem to be exclaiming a lot of things!" Chopper exclaimed.

"Sounds like lazy writing." Zoro said drily.

"Or," Nami said, "Just a lot of big revelations, anyhow, how come the log pose is still pointing up?"

"Maybe, we're just at a middle layer," Robin said, "And we can ascend further."

Meanwhile, Usopp had stripped down to just pants, "A sea is a sea!" he proclaimed before diving into the white sea.

After several seconds of Usopp's dive and a lot of Luffy-centred encouragement, Robin drily pointed out, "I don't suppose this white sea has a seafloor."

"I told that idiot not to fool around." Sanji grumbled.

Hearing a strangled yell, specifically that of Usopp, Luffy dived straight off the ship, boosting himself downwards through the clouds by shooting geysers of chocolate out of both legs.

He burst straight through the clouds, appearing below Usopp and catching the sniper neatly in his arms.

With a little effort and a couple pedals, Luffy managed to get into the rhythm of a Geppo, even with the extra weight of Usopp to drag.

He grit his teeth as he began to make his way up to the white sea, boosting himself with the occasional burst of chocolate to help his burning legs, which he was pedalling as fast as safely possible for his Geppo to keep the two of them moving upwards.

Even so, it took him a good few minutes to get the two of them back through the white sea, and he burst right through it, releasing a burst of chocolate to take him a ways into the air and making a successful landing on deck, dropping Usopp unceremoniously, and panting slightly in exhaustion.

The Strawhats seemed to have been in a frenzy, at the apparent loss of their Chief Commodore and Sniper until the two of them returned intact and entirely safe.

"I told you they'd be okay." Zoro said, bored.

"Chief Commodore Luffy is highly trained." Tanaka commented, a hint of respect in the voice of the most experienced Marine in the young crew.

Luffy grinned up tiredly at his crew, "Man, flying is hard when you're carrying that much weight."

Usopp sprang up indignantly from where he'd been having a meltdown at his near-death in the corner, "Hey! Who are you calling fat!" he said.

Luffy grinned but he didn't seem to be looking at Usopp, "Looks like we managed to stir something!" Luffy said with excitement, gazing at a humongous purple octopus that dwarfed their own ship.

Zoro looked like he was about to do something but he was beaten to the punch by Kira who pulled out a machine-gun, firing several rounds into the octopus, the bullet-holes making the entire thing collapse like a balloon-animal.

"Ooh look! A ship!" Chopper exclaimed, looking off at something in the distance with his binoculars, "Well, there was a ship." He added.

Nami frowned, "What happened to the ship?"

"It…disappeared." Chopper said before dropping his binoculars.

"Something is coming."

And something did indeed come.

Within a flash, a masked tribal figure dressed in but a tribal kilt-like contraption and toting a giant bazooka was aboard the Merry, taking Sanji down with little more than a devastating kick and putting Zoro on the ground alongside his comrade with a punch of the same calibre before going for Luffy.

Much to The Strawhat Marines' surprise, their captain was only just able to move out of the way of the first strike by the masked figure, falling back a few steps before sending out a warning blast of conqueror's haki, that seemed to tire himself more than any amount of usage of the King's Will had ever seemed to in the past.

"That's enough!" a figure from the sky shouted.

The Marines looked up to see a knight flying on a bird drop down onto their ship, from said bird, taking the hesitation of the masked figure to charge it, but to no avail, as the masked figure took the opportunity to make haste off the ship.

The knight, who the Strawhats noticed had a quite outrageously bushy white moustache, cocked his head to one side, "Did he leave?"

"Thanks for helping out." Luffy inclined his head, panting slightly, and frowning at his own uncharacteristic weakness.

"I feel so weak…" Zoro wheezed from the floor.

"You two were so useless!" Nami scolded before looking at Luffy, "and you! This is the first time I've ever seen you look like you've exerted yourself, what is up with you!?"

"The oxygen is thin here," Robin noted, "I don't think I have to explain why."

"Ah, you must be blue sea dwellers," The Knight said, "You are on the white sea, 7000 metres about the blue sea, and above us lies the white-white sea, at 10000 metres, the atmosphere up here cannot be handled by the bodies of the average blue sea dwellers."

"Hmmm, I'm getting used to it." Luffy said, taking slow breaths.

"Me too." Zoro said.

The Knight waved his arms dismissively, "That's impossible! Anyhow, Imma cut to the chase. The white seas can be extremely dangerous for those who aren't the best at combat, and I, am a mercenary for hire, if you blow this whistle," at this the knight tossed Luffy a whistle, "Then I shall come, I charge 5 Million Extol per save."

"…What's an extol." Luffy asked sheepishly.

The Knight peered at Luffy suspiciously, "How do you not know the currency of the skies, you must have passed at least an island or two, whichever route up here you have taken."

Luffy grinned, "Nah, we rode a river up here."

The Knight's eyes widened, "not many dare travel that route anymore, you are brave to take that path."

Before he could elaborate, Luffy puffed his chest out proudly, "We are Marines! We are the bravest on all the seas!"

"Hmm, from what I hear, you Marines are like the White Berets, correct?" The Knight said suspiciously, "Well, it seems like your trip here may be interesting after all." He said with an air of finality.

As he prepared to leave on his giant bird he said , "Don't forget, one whistle and I'll be there to help you, 5 million extol per save, but for your bravery, I'll give you one save for free, the first whistle you give will be a free save." He said.

"Wait!" Nami called out, "We don't even know your name."

"I am Gan Fall, Knight of the Sky!" he declared proudly, mounting his giant bird, "And this is my partner Pierre."

*** **End of Chapter**


	34. Sky Island

*** **Present**

"Hmm, from what I hear, you Marines are like the White Berets, correct?" The Knight said suspiciously, "Well, it seems like your trip here may be interesting after all." He said with an air of finality.

As he prepared to leave on his giant bird he said , "Don't forget, one whistle and I'll be there to help you, 5 million extol per save, but for your bravery, I'll give you one save for free, the first whistle you give will be a free save." He said.

"Wait!" Nami called out, "We don't even know your name."

"I am Gan Fall, Knight of the Sky!" he declared proudly, mounting his giant bird, "And this is my partner Pierre."

With that, the self-proclaimed Knight of the Sky took off from the Going Merry.

After a fair bit of uneventful sailing, the Marines finally came across something of note.

"Heaven's Gate!" Chopper read off a large fanciful gate.

An old lady greeted the Marines at the aforementioned gate.

"What is your purpose here," she asked drily, "Are you tourists or do you wish to fight?"

As Luffy was about to answer, the old lady droned on, "Well, it doesn't really matter, whatever your intentions, you must pay 1 billion extol to enter."

"one BILLION!" Nami said mortified.

"Hmm, that would be 100,000 beli, in blue sea currency."

Just as Nami was about to shoot back an angry response, the old woman spoke again, "You don't have to pay, of course."

Nami smiled, "Then what are we waiting for!" she said joyfully, "Let's enter."

"No," Luffy said firmly, "If we do not pay, we are criminals, isn't that right, old lady?"

Said old lady cracked a wry smile, "So it is." She responded simply.

"Nami," Luffy ordered, "Give her the money out of our stores from the last couple bounties we've collected."

Nami did so extremely reluctantly, moaning about how it was highway robbery.

Once the money had been given, Luffy spoke up in the awkward lull in the conversation, "So, how do we get to heaven!?" he said excitedly.

Something rumbled beneath the Going Merry.

"That's your ride," the old lady said, "White Sea's very own Special Speedy Shrimp."

The Special Speedy Shrimp took the Marines up a belt of clouds, taking them to the entrance of what a large sign proclaimed as 'Godland Skypiea'.

They burst into what seemed to be a stretch of cloud just a little bit away from an island.

"It's Sky Island!" Luffy shouted excitedly.

The Merry made its way to the shore, where all the Strawhats burst out excitedly.

"The surface of this island is like a fluffy cloud!" Usopp said.

After goofing off on the island for a while, the Marines noticed someone in the distance.

"It's an angel!" Sanji crooned at the figure off in the distance.

"Heso!" the so-called angel said.

She approached along with what seemed to be an all-white fox.

"Are you blue sea dwellers?" she asked, "I'm Conis and this is my sky fox, Suu."

She took a large watermelon like fruit that Luffy had been trying to penetrate to no avail.

She flipped it over and took a knife to the base of the fruit, cutting it open from there, "You have to cut it from right here, the skin is like steel everywhere else." She explained.

From the distance out in the white sea, emerge a figure which seemed to be hurtling towards them at great speeds.

Nami squinted out at the figure, "What is THAT?" she asked, curiously.

"Conis! Heso!" the figure yelled out.

"Heso Father!" Conis yelled back.

"He's riding something," Nami realised.

"Ah, my bad," Conis said apologetically, "That's a Waver."

The man, who later identified himself as Pagaya, Conis' father introduced himself and invited the Strawhats to his house for dinner.

Pagaya spoke a lot about life on Sky Island and how life worked around there, but as some of the Strawhats noticed, he skirted around the topic of the leadership of the Island completely.

After Luffy explained who they were and what their position was, Pagaya's expression became far more pensive.

"You'll probably want to talk with the White Berets," Pagaya said, "They are the enforcers of God."

"God?" Zoro questioned, incredulously.

"Shh," Pagaya hissed, "He hears all!"

"Where can we find these White Berets?" Tanaka asked, ever the voice of reason.

Pagaya hesitated but Conis offered, "We can take you to their base on the Island."

*** **Enel**

The Strawhats caught the notice of God the moment they entered the White Sea via the Knock-Up Stream, after all, anybody brave enough to take _that_ path was worthy of the notice of god.

Notice, however, turned to trepidation once he used his Mantra to try and read the kind of strength these intruders had, to see whether it was bravery or arrogance that took them up the Knock-Up Stream.

Strong.

They were all strong.

Some of them were merely strong but some of them were beyond the realm of anything Enel could have imagined.

He needed to get them down and he needed to do it now.

With that in mind, Enel called his White Berets, informing them of the threat, telling them to make up an offense if they didn't commit one themselves.

Anything to get them onto God's turf.

He listened in on their conversation with Conis and Pagaya.

Marines.

They seemed to be like enforcers themselves, relatively senior ones if they were to be taken on their word, and Enel certainly would, they were crazy strong…perhaps even strong enough to take on God.

Just as he was about to signal to the White Berets to go out and seize the Marines at all costs, the Marines left to go to the White Berets.

It was like a gift!

A gift to God.

Enel crackled into being in front of his White Berets.

Once all were appropriately kneeling, God spoke.

"When the intruders arrive here, bring them to me at all costs."

*** **End of Chapter**


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